Grand opening held for the Alberton Community Health Centre

The Alberton Community Health Centre officially opened its doors for residents of Alberton and the West Prince area Tuesday, October 10, providing a new, functional space for collaborative care to be offered by primary care, mental health and addictions and public health care workers for generations. 

The new community health centre, located at 397 Church Street, provides nearly 20,000 square-feet of specially designed space to allow for the multiple health care teams to work closely together. These teams had previously been spread out across the local community. 

The centre provides space for:

• Six nurse practitioner and physician offices
• Two Mental Health & Addictions exam/consultation rooms
• Nine Mental Health & Addiction consultation offices
• Thirteen medical exam rooms
• Two nursing exam room/offices
• Four allied health offices
• Telehealth room
• Public health exam room/office
• Minor procedure room
• Four program delivery and education meeting rooms

In addition to being carefully planned to provide an ideal space for care, the building was developed with enhanced energy efficiency measures including geothermal heat pump system for heating and cooling; mechanical ventilation heat recovery; including insulation, and LED lighting. 

The entire project cost $7.6 million and was completed in just over two years from the issuing of tenders.

Along with the Western Hospital and neighboring facilities such as Community Hospital O’Leary, this centre will support staff to provide the best possible service to Islanders for decades.

Quotes: 

“I am very pleased to celebrate the official opening of the Alberton Health Centre. Collaborative care centres like this one are vital to the Island health care system. With a variety of services offered in one place, it will provide excellent support for staff and benefit the patients accessing the services here in Alberton.”  

-  Hon. Mark McLane, Minister of Health and Wellness. 

“Government is investing in modern facilities to provide residents with greater access to services closer to home. The new Alberton Community Health Centre will help recruit and retain healthcare professionals while encouraging more people to live, work and raise a family in western Prince Edward Island. This will benefit the Town of Alberton and all of West Prince for generations to come.”

- Hon. Ernie Hudson, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure and Member of the Legislative Assembly for Alberton-Bloomfield.

“The Alberton Community Health Centre provides an excellent location to care for Islanders, where health care works from across primary care, mental health and addictions and public health can efficiently work as a team. Bringing our services together reduces barriers and stigma experienced by people in access support for the mental health and substance use and provides more opportunities for wholistic care. In addition to helping existing staff serve the public better, the new site will also help us attract more health care workers to the West Prince area, as it provides the shared team space, we know health care workers are expecting.”

- Corinne Rowswell, Chief Operating Officer, Health PEI. 

Background - Overview of services offered at Alberton Community Health Centre

Community Mental Health and Addictions Clinical Services (individual therapy and group programming):

• Opioid Agonist Treatment
• Outpatient Withdrawal Management
• Seniors Mental Health Resource Team
• Community Outreach Treatment Team (serious and persistent mental health treatment)
• Student Well-being Team staff
• Meeting space for community partners such as PEI Rape and Sexual Assault Centre, Family Violence Prevention Services and 12 step community services. 

Primary Care Services:

• Patient Medical home with pods including a prescriber (physician or nurse practitioner), LPN and medical office administrator with support from social workers, registered nurses, diabetes certified registered nurses and registered dietitian. 

Nursing (RN and LPN) services include:

• chronic disease management including hypertension management, COPD management including spirometry and med management and action plans, 
• prenatal assessments, 
• cryotherapy, 
• INR management and dosing, 
• diabetes management and insulin adjustment, 
• low-level anxiety and depression support via Collaborative Mental Health program
• case management
• complex dressings and wound care
• immunizations such as Hep A, Pneumovax, influenza
• procedures such as Methotrexate injections
• Depo Medrol injections 
• urinary tract infection protocol
• 24-hour blood pressure/Blood pressure checks
• diabetic foot assessments/foot care

Social worker services:

• mental health therapy
• case management
• consultation/collaboration with team members and acute care
• liaison between community partners

Public health clinics:

• children and infant clinics

Media Contacts: 

Everton McLean
Chief Communications Officer, Health PEI
902-213-1507
emclean@gov.pe.ca

Samantha Hughes
Department of Health and Wellness
shughes@gov.pe.ca
(902)316-1323

Katie Cudmore
Transportation and Infrastructure
katiecudmore@gov.pe.ca