A grant has helped kickstart Whatever It Takes, which frees up beds at the hospital.

Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation is appealing to the public to support a program that helps get healthy patients home faster.

Whatever It Takes (WIT) mixes creative thinking, acts of kindness, and a bit of cash, to help relieve capacity issues at Ridge Meadows Hospital (RMH).

Using creative problem solving and WIT funding, social workers at RMH can go the extra mile for patients.

In order to get this project up and running the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation committed to raising $5,000 on top of their existing commitment of $700,000 to support health care in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, and thanks to Maple Ridge Community Foundation the hospital foundation is $2,000 closer to their goal.

WIT helps patients who are healthy enough to be discharged from hospital but have a financial or social situation that prevents them from being sent home safely. It’s the brainchild of social workers, who each day work with patients struggling with poverty, social isolation, substance abuse, or complex health issues.

Whatever It Takes takes the creative approach of “let’s do whatever it takes to get this person home safely.”

WIT demonstrates how people who are passionate and compassionate about delivering the best possible health care can make a big difference by doing small things. It will reduce the average length of stay and gets people transitioned sooner, reduce re-admissions by reducing a person’s risk, and improve capacity, and decreases congestion, by freeing up acute care beds.

“We are very grateful to the Maple Ridge Community Foundation for their support,” said Annika Polegato, representative of RMHF. “It is anticipated that 50 patients requiring financial assistance, on an average of $100 each, will be helped in the first year. WIT will save the $800 to $1,000/day it costs our health care system to keep a healthy person in an acute care bed. Their donation of $2,000 will help us launch a project that will make a tremendous difference.”

To help fund this pilot project, contact Annika Polegato at 604-466-6925 or email Annika.polegato@fraserhealth.ca. Contributions will be used to launch this program, saving the health care system a minimum of $50,000 this year.