Some questions, some answers and a whole lot of information was passed along Tuesday night at the Heritage Inn as the Five Hills Health Region hosted a discussion on the new hospital for Moose Jaw.

The evening looked to help answer some of the concerns that have been floating around since the project was announced in the fall. The main topic of the night was the LEAN approach to health care. David Chambers is a consultant with the project and says not only is LEAN effective for patients, but staff are finding things easier too.

"They recognize that they could actually increase the capacity to help people by 45%." explained Chambers as he talked about what other hospitals in North America have been able to accomplish with LEAN. "45% more outcomes with the same staff. Now, when staff first hear this they say 'Oh, my gosh! You're going to work my fingers to the bone.'  But that is not LEAN."

The idea for the new hospital is Moose Jaw is to make it easier for staff to treat a patient, easier for the patient to get to their treatments and make things more comfortable.  

One concern that was raised during the election campaign was a rumour that the hospital was going to be smaller than the current Union Hospital.  Chambers says that in this facility they have what they're calling a Short Stay Unit that has 48 rooms but they are not counted in the bed total for the facility. With the new unit, Chambers says that will create substantially more treatment space than there is right now at the Union Hospital.  

In case you couldn't make it to the Tuesday meeting, there is another one set for Wednesday night at the Heritage Inn starting at 7pm.