The Royal Inland Hospital Patient Care Tower is the latest addition to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. Credit: EllisDon Infrastructure

Currently under construction and scheduled to open in the summer of 2020, the Royal Inland Hospital Patient Care Tower is the latest addition to Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops. The tower was first identified in the hospital’s 2011 master plan, which has provided a road map for development to meet the long-term health care needs of area residents and demands for health services.

Such health care needs have determined the design of the tower and its programs. The Interior Health planning team and its design consultants worked to develop plans in consultation with Royal Inland Hospital administration and other stakeholders. Then, once construction was underway, hospital staff, physicians, and community partners were engaged throughout an extensive design development process where they had the opportunity to provide feedback.

Staff and physicians were given multiple opportunities to view the design in an ongoing process. The design of spaces like patient rooms was continually revised and brought back to stakeholders before the interior design was finalized, which ensures best practices are in place when the tower opens.

Royal Inland Hospital is one of two tertiary hospitals in the Interior Health region and operates the third-busiest emergency department in the province. Planning and building a nine-storey hospital tower as an addition to an existing hospital facility that continues to operate comes with challenges.

Download Spring 2020

To read about specific design and technology decisions in the new facility, see “The New Royal Inland Hospital Patient Care Tower” in the Spring 2020 edition of Input. Download Spring 2020

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