April 26, 2019 – Arnprior Regional Health (ARH) opened its newly redeveloped Medical Device Reprocessing Department (previously called Central Supply and Reprocessing Department) – a state-of-the-art facility that helps provide even better patient care in the community.

“Our Medical Device Reprocessing (MDRD) facility was 50 years old and external reviews confirmed what we knew that the space needed to be updated to meet current standards,” said Eric Hanna, President and CEO, ARH. “We were faced with two options: keep the service in-house or outsource to another facility. After careful analysis, it was clear that the best long-term and financial option was to renovate the MDRD to maintain the service in-house.”

The MDRD is adjacent to the operating rooms and provides reprocessing of reusable medical devices for ORs, the Ambulatory Care Clinics, the Emergency Department, Diagnostic Imaging, the Family Health Team, and the Inpatient Unit – it also reprocesses and sterilizes hardware i.e. basins for entire hospital and Grove Nursing Home.

The total cost of the renovation was $2,185,000. ARH received a Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care capital grant for $1,793,600 and the remainder was paid for through ARH parking lot proceeds.

“Our government’s nearly $1.8 million capital funding is a much-needed infrastructure investment to modernize ARH’s MDRD facility and technologies,” said John Yakabuski, MPP, Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke. “This redevelopment allows the hospital to deliver better patient care closer to home.”

Said Hanna: “This project is an example of our commitment to ensuring we work with the provincial government to find every opportunity to capital funding to continually work to update and improve our Hospital facilities.”

The renovation began in August 2018 and was completed in March 2019. The new space consists of three separate rooms: decontamination, sterilization, prep + pack. The facility meets current standards and includes new automated technologies that further enhance patient safety, i.e. controlled water temperature and controlled amount of detergent dispensed.

“Over the last 10 years, the MDRD had been challenged by limited physical space and inadequate environmental infrastructure to meet the reprocessing requirements of the hospital,” said Hanna. “The redeveloped facility gives our hospital capacity to support future changes to surgical activity in our community.”

The ARH surgical program has two Operating room theatres, a day surgery unit, recovery \room and supporting surgical clinics. The Hospital performs approximately 560 surgical procedures and 1900 endoscopic procedures annually.

The MDRD redevelopment was led by third party vendors: Frecon Construction Ltd., Dredge Leahy Architects and Colliers Project Leaders.

About Arnprior Regional Health

Arnprior Regional Health (ARH) is a progressive 105-bed organization that includes a fully accredited community hospital, nursing home, primary health care centre and extensive community programs. ARH is a regional hub with a strong history of providing exemplary care to the residents of West Ottawa, McNab/Braeside, Arnprior and Mississippi Mills. As your partner in health, ARH is committed to listening to and responding to meet the needs of those we serve, because together, we create a healthy community.

For more information or to request photos:

Melissa McDermott

Interim Communications Manager, Arnprior Regional Health

[email protected]