Autumn/Winter 21-22 Campaign

Share:

Your support is critically needed. Please donate.

Your help is essential to allow us to keep improving health and social services in the Outaouais. We rely on your continued support to deliver on our commitments of over $4,000,000 in investment projects with the CISSS de l’Outaouais.

Here is a concrete example of the many projects for which we need your help and which will have a concrete impact on both health workers and patients.

The CISSS de l’Outaouais’s establishments urgently require several small pieces of equipment that are essential to the performance of recurring tasks carried out by care professionals. Due to current budget restraints, many pieces of equipment have to be shared between departments. This inevitably reduces efficiency as it requires staff to travel other floors to use the equipment, resulting in less time spent with patients.

Small equipment can make a big difference.

To ensure smoother service delivery, more efficient use of workers’ time and higher-quality care for users, an inventory of the needs for small essential equipment was carried out for each facility.

The needed investment for all this equipment amounts to nearly $375,000:

Hospitals: $200,150 > Learn more
CHSLD nursing homes: $147,800 > Learn more
Pierre-Janet Mental Health Hospital: $21,600 > Learn more
La RessourSe Physical Rehabilitation Centre: $5,160 > Learn more

This project highlights just one of the many needs at the CISSS de l’Outaouais. These projects could not go forward without your vital support. The contribution you make today will help health care professionals by providing them with better working tools.

I’m not surprised that the bill for small equipment needs in the CHSLD nursing homes goes as high as $150,000. We’ve been short of equipment for a long time; we feel like we’re always chasing after this or that. In layman’s terms, it’s as if an office worker didn’t have an eraser and had to go and borrow one from a colleague two floors down every time they needed it. Nobody would consider these working conditions to be normal, yet that’s exactly what we have to go through every day! Fortunately our patients are understanding, they know we’re doing our best and they appreciate it.

– Nadia Couillard, Nurse

We take care of multiple patients at a time and if we have to go back and forth because some of the equipment we need is unavailable, it’s a lot to deal with and it adds to our mental load. Not having all the tools at our disposal is a nuisance. When we do our patient assessment, we have to take their temperature and we need that information immediately. We don’t have time to start running around the floors after a thermometer. We would be much more efficient with all the necessary equipment within reach. At the beginning of the crisis last year, we had to take the temperature of each resident every day, but we only had a single forehead thermometer for two whole floors. (…) It’s heartwarming to see people donating generously, because it makes us feel supported by the population.

– Marika Bourassa Choquette, Nurse

Here we have one glucose meter for three floors. I’ve sometimes had to tell my colleagues that we can’t check a patient’s blood sugar level because we can’t find the meter, or because it’s being used elsewhere and by the time it’s available it’s too late, the patient has already eaten. We’re constantly being bothered to see who has the glucose meter. Sometimes it even causes squabbles among staff. We blame each other for taking the equipment somewhere and forgetting to bring it back.

– Laurentine Sikuzani, Nurse

Other ongoing projects

We need you to carry them out

Autumn/Winter 21-22 Campaign

The CISSS de l’Outaouais’s establishments urgently require several small pieces of equipment that are essential to the performance of recurring tasks carried out by care professionals

Electric Exercise Pedals

The acquisition of three electric exercise pedals for the Outaouais’s CHSLD nursing homes will provide staff with an additional tool to strengthen the users’ leg muscles and improve their mobility.

Development of the Outer Courtyard at the Freeman Youth Rehabilitation Centre

For these young people with needs, the Freeman Youth Rehabilitation Centre is a full-fledged living environment – that is why the Centre’s team of specialists, through various intervention strategies, tries to normalize their daily lives there.

Upgrading the Diamic software

To help the technical staff and reduce waiting time for patients, the CISSS de l’Outaouais must upgrade the existing software to add specialized modules for specimen traceability, macroscopy assistance, telepathology and management.

Youth Funds

The Gatineau Health Foundation is also doing its share to support a number of programs tailored to the diverse needs of young people in rehabilitation centres or foster families, as well as other children requiring a follow-up by the Youth Protection Branch.

PacVision - Medication bag verification devices

PacVision units, medication bag verification devices based on pill recognition technology that can significantly enhance quality control and patient safety.

Breast Tomosynthesis

In tomosynthesis, a mobile X-ray tube is used to take a series of pictures and generate a three-dimensional image of the mammary gland.

Blood Sample Analyzers

Each year, the Gatineau and Hull hospitals’ laboratories perform more than 70,000 analytical procedures on blood products to determine blood groups, verify the presence of antibodies, ensure pregnancy follow-ups, and more.

Soft Media and Soft Report Acquisition

In order to streamline the process, the CISSS de l’Outaouais wants to acquire two specialized software suites designed for laboratory information management. SoftMedia is a state-of-the-art system for storing digital clinical data.

Small Equipment in CHSLD

The CISSS de l’Outaouais’ establishments are in need of several small pieces of equipment that are essential to the performance of recurring tasks by care professionals.