Inpatient Care

When patients are sick they are encouraged to phone the clinic (604-806-8522) to speak to a nurse for an assessment, to seek medical advice or to request admission into hospital. 

Arrangements are made between the Nurse, the Physician and the unit for admission to one of the medical units at St. Paul’s Hospital. If patients phone outside of office hours, they are directed to call the main switchboard, at 604-682-2344 and ask for the Respirologist on call. If this is an emergency, patients are asked to go to their nearest Emergency department or to St. Paul’s Hospital Emergency department.

The majority of our patients are hosted on the 8th Floor (8A), Providence Building of St. Paul’s Hospital. A small number with organisms requiring further isolation (for example, cepacia) are cared for on the 7th Floor. 

When coming into hospital, all patients are requested to bring their airway clearance devices, special medications such as MVW, non-CF medications such as oral contraceptives, glucose monitoring devices and any special CF personal care items they use at home. There was a small kitchen available for patients on the 8th floor which included a washer and dryer, but we have recently had to convert this space for research purposes. We are currently working on finding replacement solutions for our 8th floor patients, and for now, a refrigerator for CF patient use is located outside the Ross Green CF Gym. For CF inpatients on the 7th floor, there are portable kitchen carts available through the CF Clinic. 

There is a library of DVDs for inpatient use which is housed in a large black filing cabinet outside the Ross Green CF Gym. Patients are welcome to borrow these for the length of their stay. In addition patients can bring their laptop computers and access wireless internet for a fee. However, it is important to remember that portable electronics are always vulnerable to theft and patients are responsible for keeping these devices secure.