Mattawa General Hospital

Description

Lhocircpital de Mattawa Hospital is a not for profit bilingual 19 bed primary care facility offering inpatient acute care Emergency Services and ambulatory programs There are four family practice physicians that provide medical and emergency services at the hospital The Hospital supports local medical practitioners by providing laboratory and diagnostic imaging services to the community

The Hospital remains committed to providing the excellent health care established by the Sisters of Charity in 1878 The Hospital is closely connected to the community and helps to improve the quality of life for residents of the area The Hospital has a tradition of providing personalized care and having health care professionals committed to the healing process and compassionate about medicine Specifically the Hospital provides four vital functions to the community

Emergency Care
The Mattawa Hospital and its health care professionals provide quality nursing and medical emergency care including resuscitation and ongoing monitoring to victims of life threatening medical conditions and serious accidents With over 6500 visits to the emergency department each year rapid assessment and basic stabilization of patients in life threatening situations dramatically reduces mortality and longterm debilitation rates

Family Health Care
The Mattawa Hospital enables families to live and grow in the community by providing access to high quality health care With over 500 admissions and a total of 7500 patient visits the community can feel secure knowing the medical needs of their families will be taken care of now and in the future as close to home as possible

Rehabilitation
The Mattawa Hospital provides physiotherapy services to both inpatients and outpatients to help restore patients to their maximum physical potential and reduce needed recovery time Under the direction of a registered physiotherapist patients play an active role in their treatment program to overcome injury and return to their daily routine as soon as possible

Teaching
The Mattawa Hospital fully encourages an active teaching program in the Health Sciences including participation in the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada Rural Experience Access Program electives for medical students from Ottawa Queens and Toronto and Nursing Students from Canadore College and Nipissing University The Hospital looks forward to an active role in the new Northern Ontario Medical School

MISSION
The Mattawa Hospital provides progressive high quality faithbased health care services that are responsive to the needs of our bilingual community

VISION
The Mattawa Hospital will be recognized as the leading health care resource through innovation partnerships and education inspired by our founders Catholic Values

VALUES
System Excellence our ability to be a leading partner in system integration to insure access to quality healthy services for our community

Sacredness of Life our commitment to spirituality and the health of the whole person

Respect all persons are deserving of dignity and access to the highest quality of service we are able to provide

Compassion at all times we remember we are here to serve to provide care and support those in their time of greatest need

Integrity our commitment to social justice trust fairness and ethical behaviour

History

Hocircpital Geacuteneacuteral Mattawa General Hospital overlooks the convergence point of the Ottawa and Mattawa Rivers The hospital was established in 1878 when three nuns from the order now known as the Sisters of Charity arrived in Mattawa to open and operate a small five bed hospital to meet the medical needs of the community and surrounding area From its beginning the Hospital provided high quality care to its patients In addition to hospital care the Sisters regularly traveled to shanties to care for sick lumberjacks and frequently used crafts as a form of rehabilitation to improve recovery time for their patients

Mattawa became the centre of a growing lumber industry and its population steadily increased In 1885 a new twostory hospital was constructed on the current site It was destroyed by fire in 1901 The community rallied to rebuild the hospital and in 1902 construction of a new red brick building was complete The new hospital had a 52bed capacity and came to be known as the Pride of the North In 1927 the towns increasing population required a new wing to be added to enable to Sisters to accommodate more patients and provide more services to the expanding community

Fire struck the hospital again in 1966 destroying part of the building Once again the community rallied to find a solution to ensure that the Hospital continued to be a part of the community Prefabricated buildings were purchased as a temporary solution and the patient care activities were located in these temporary structures The resulting hospital had 31 beds with 39 staff members including eight Sisters and contained a nursing unit emergency facilities operating theatre laboratory xray pharmacy and maternity section

During the 80s and 90s patient care services evolved and surgical and obstetrical services were transferred to North Bay General The number of beds were reduced to 19 In 1992 the hospital was officially designated bilingual under Ontarios FrenchLanguage Services Act

Additional changes came to the hospital in 1997 when the hospital was incorporated and ownership was transferred to the new Corporation from the Sisters of Charity Although the number of Sisters providing health care has declined the hospital remains a Catholic facility through the sponsorship of the Catholic Health Care Corporation of Ontario Thus the Hospital continues to provide quality health care and services in the Catholic tradition and values of holistic faithbased multidisciplinary care