The future of construction for the future of care

A new 15-bed “withdrawal unit” on the fifth floor of Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital will treat people struggling with substance use and addiction. It aims to break the cycle of repetitive emergency visits, providing a supportive environment for patients after they’ve been in the emergency department and before they get counseling in the community.

“It’s a kind of subacute unit,” says Sony Bae, a project manager with Providence Health in Vancouver. “Once the patients come in and they’ve been stabilized, they come to the withdrawal unit for somewhere between three to five days to be watched and monitored.”

St. Paul’s is a busy downtown hospital so being able to install the new unit with strict infection control protocols, minimal dust and hardly any mess was a definite plus. But it hasn’t been without hiccups. “I’m a firm believer that if things go smoothly, you don’t learn much. It's in experiencing those pain points that you learn and evolve,” she says.

The hospital has used demountable wall systems in the past, but Sony says “they’re not as rigorous and they can’t stand up to an acute care environment." Digital Component Construction provides the necessary durability and structural integrity. "We’re putting in 15 beds of people who are withdrawing and stabilizing. So it needs to be a little more than just demountable walls with fabric. The combination of the stick-built with the panel finishing makes a lot of sense and is well suited to the needs of this purpose-built unit.”

Sony is pleased with the Falkbuilt Lower Mainland Branch’s in-house install team and problem solving on the ground. “The team has been wonderful and hopefully we’re contributing to them learning as much as us. Katie Madden and Connor James have been right there with us every step of the way. There’s been lots of little mismatches that Connor has had to think about ways to resolve and come up with solutions. They’ve been great at that.” Next up, Falkbuilt will work with St. Paul’s on an acute care unit.