Peterborough Regional Health Centre

Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) came to be in January 1999, following a directive from the Ontario Hospital Restructuring Commission, and is comprised of the former Peterborough Civic and St. Joseph's Hospitals, and currently as of 2007 operates from those two locations in the City of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Acute care services are provided at 1 Hospital Drive, located in the Central-West part of the city; while chronic, rehabilitation and palliative care services, along with some out-patient medical and surgical services, are provided from the 384 Rogers Street site (the former St. Joseph's Hospital located in the "East City" or Ashburnham neighbourhood of Peterborough). PRHC is in the construction phase of a new, single-site facility to be completed in 2008. The new 715,000 square-foot structure, built on what is now the PRHC's Hospital Drive Site parking lot, will accommodate up to 494 beds.

The City of Peterborough (pop. 78,000), located in Central-East Ontario, is one of the largest cities between the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Ottawa, and is the business, culture, education, and health care centre of a greater region stretching from the Counties of Northumberland (South) to Haliburton (North), and the City of Kawartha Lakes (West) to Hastings County (East). The region covers a huge geographic area, and is home to a population of approximately 300,000.

PRHC is the region's second-largest employer with a staff of approximately 2,000 and about 350 physicians with various privileges. The hospital has more than 600 volunteers.

As a result of several factors including a chronic region-wide shortage of primary care physicians, a large senior citizen population, and being the only hospital in the region equipped to handle many specialty cases, the PRHC operates one of the busiest emergency departments in Canada. ER patient volume is often dramatically higher than at university-affiliated hospitals in much larger cities like Toronto. PHRC's Emergency Department sees in excess of 100,000 patients each year. A common misperception is that emergency departments in smaller communities see less acute care cases in comparison to, for example, a university hospital that operates a designated trauma centre, and that therefore patient statistics are an "apples to oranges" comparison. In fact, a detailed review of statistics shows that patient acuity is comparable, and given the specialty nature of the Peterborough hospital as a regional referral centre, the Emergency and other departments handle patients from almost all medical and surgical specialties.

In the early 2000s a large number of family physicians gave up their admitting privileges at the PRHC, and the hospital opted for a "Hospitalist" system whereby the hospital has hired physicians onto staff, and those physicians now provide inpatient care to the majority of general medical patients. Unfortunately, the high pay rate and other factors, such as not having to maintain an office, lured numerous physicians away from their general practices in the community, exacerbating an already serious chronic shortage of primary care physicians.

The following medical and surgical specialties are available at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre:

Medicine
General Medicine, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Respirology, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Nephrology, Dermatology (consult only for inpatients), Haematology, Oncology (outpatient consultation only), Paediatrics

PRHC operates an inpatient and outpatient psychiatric service

Surgery
Dental/Oral & Maxillofacial (consult only), General Surgery, Gynecology/Obstetrics, Orthopaedic Surgery Ophthalmology, Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), Vascular Surgery Cardiac Surgery (consult only), Urology, Plastic Surgery, Thoracic Surgery

Clinical services and facilities
- Diagnostic & Interventional Radiology, Nuclear Medicine - Clinical Laboratories, Pathology (excluding autopsy), Blood Bank - Inpatient/Outpatient Pharmacy - Maternity/L&D including midwifery and regional obstetrical referral centre - Newborn & Level II Nurseries - Paediatrics (inpatient) - Cardiac Catheterization Lab - Medical/Surgical Intensive Care plus Telemetry - Designated centre for hip & knee replacement, cancer surgery, cataract surgery - Dedicated Women's Health Centre (stand-alone) - Outpatient chemotherapy - Regional Dialysis Centre (inpatient/outpatient) and nephrology services - Regional Stroke (CVA) Centre - Full Emergency/Trauma facilities with 24/7 specialty consultation and operating rooms - Regional "Base Hospital" Program (Paramedics in Central-East Ontario are in direct contact with physicians in the PRHC Emergency Dept., and those physicians provide diagnostic and treatment directives as indicated) - Heliport