The new Grace Hospital emergency department will open on May 29. (MANITOBA GOVERNMENT)

WINNIPEG — A new emergency department at Grace Hospital will begin accepting patients on Tuesday following a $43.8 million upgrade.

The 38,000-square-foot space is now five times larger than its old unit. It includes a larger ambulance bay equipped to handle the major incident response vehicle (MIRV), if required. It will also act to reduce patient off-load times, and allow for additional assessment and treatment rooms and spaces, as well as a physical connection to the ACCESS Winnipeg West walk-in clinic.

“We know patients are waiting too long for the right care, stay in the emergency department or hospital longer than necessary and often have to travel between sites for care,” said Réal Cloutier, interim president and CEO, Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

“This facility furthers our effort to concentrate services in the right locations to help reduce wait times and the need to transfer patients, and will build on the improvements already achieved in phase one of the Healing Our Health System Plan.”

Grace Hospital’s original emergency department — the oldest in Winnipeg — opened in 1992 and only measured 7,000-square-feet in size.

Additional staff were hired last fall for the new space and the rest will be in place when the emergency department opens next week.

The province says the state-of-the-art facility expects to treat 35,000 this year.

The WRHA reports patient wait times have seen a 16 percent improvement from last year. Further details on the province’s health-care transformation progress are expected to be released next week.

What’s new at the Grace Hospital

• 24 assessment and treatment rooms equipped to provide a full level of emergency care, so patients do not need to move between different areas;
• seven lower-level care treatment spaces and a physical connection to the ACCESS Winnipeg West walk-in clinic;
• a dedicated X-ray, EKG and laboratory space;
•  a safe room outfitted with roam alert technology for patients at risk to themselves or others;
• a large ambulance bay that can accommodate several vehicles at once to reduce patient offload times and is large enough to accommodate the major incident response vehicle (MIRV);
• an open-concept design with natural light and the ability to improve sight lines to all patient care areas; and
• a quiet room and exterior garden for patients and families who require time to reflect.