St Helens was a 100-bed hospital in the main street of Hobart owned by Australian Hospital Care a listed major health corporation. It had been owned since early 1982. Following the success if the Pindara and Knox projects it was decided to look at the emergency market. St Helens had years before purchased Hobart’s only deputising service and set it up in the ground floor of the hospital hoping for extra admissions. What happened was a GP service with very rare admissions and some friction from the local GPs re conflict of interest.
We remodelled the concept, closed the general practice and built and launched a new emergency centre. This was received with caution by Hobart’s establishment but settled into a slow and progressive growth phase. The growth from the EC led to an extension and rebuild of the ICU and some more ward beds. AHC won the tender for the Royal Hobart Hospital Co location. As part of the tender the EC /ICU was moved into the public hospital precinct. Impact’s involvement was from development to end of 98 just prior to the Co- location.
Impact Healthcare
