EDMONTON – The Lois Hole Hospital for Women today celebrates five years of providing a wide range of health services for women of all ages, including high-risk obstetrics, specialized gynecology and women’s surgery.

The Alberta Health Services facility – located within the Royal Alexandra Hospital – has become a Western Canadian leader in women’s health since opening on April 8, 2010.

“We are proud of the advances we’ve made in the past five years,” says Joanna Pawlyshyn, Senior Operating Officer of the Royal Alexandra Hospital. “Not only do our staff provide our patients with the right care in the right place, but they also keep the Lois Hole Hospital for Women at the cutting edge of women’s health.”

The facility’s advances and accomplishments include:

• The Lois Hole Hospital for Women is one of four centres in Canada to partner with Canadian Blood Services and serves as a collection site for umbilical cord blood, used in stem cell transplants.
• Late last year, the hospital opened Canada’s first simulation centre for women’s health. The Simulation Centre for Health Learning is a teaching and demonstration space where real-life medical and emergency scenarios are reproduced using simulation technology. The centre is used by all Edmonton-based health care professionals working in women’s health.
• The da Vinci Robotic Surgical System – a minimally invasive device used to operate on cancers of the uterus, endometrium and cervix – was introduced this year, becoming the first robot of its kind dedicated to women’s health care in Canada.
• Almost 7,000 babies were born at the hospital last year, bringing the five-year total to more than 35,000.
• The hospital is the first in North America to implement Cuddle Cots, a piece of medical equipment that acts like a refrigerated bassinet that enables babies who have died to remain with their families for a longer period of time so the babies are not required to be cooled in a mortuary setting.

Many of the hospital’s achievements were made possible through the support of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation.

“Community support builds great hospitals,” says Andrew Otway, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation. “We are so proud to reach this milestone and we are grateful to the donors in our community who continue to support excellence in women’s health at the Lois Hole Hospital for Women.”

The hospital was made possible through more than $20 million in donations to the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation towards campaigns for the Lois Hole Hospital for Women and its larger home, the Robbins Pavilion.

The Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation inspires community support for the Royal Alexandra Hospital and its initiatives of excellence, including the Lois Hole Hospital for Women. The foundation empowers compassionate, innovative patient care through leading-edge education, research, technology and facility enhancements.

Alberta Health Services is the provincial health authority responsible for planning and delivering health supports and services for more than four million adults and children living in Alberta. Its mission is to provide a patient-focused, quality health system that is accessible and sustainable for all Albertans.