Health Unique service is another example how this community hospital is on the cutting edge of care

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SAINT JOHN - St. Joseph's Hospital's intravenous (IV) day hospital is capable of performing 60 treatments each day, says its administrative director, Jill Barton MacPhee.

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KâtÈ LeBlanc/Telegraph-Journal

Marlene Chatterton, right, and Jill Barton MacPhee, director of the IV day hospital and ambulatory clinics, chat in the IV day hospital at St. Joseph's.

The day hospital opened a little over a year ago in the old chapel and has expanded dramatically ever since.

"Physicians are realizing that the service is available," says MacPhee.

"Patients are becoming more educated about what opportunities are available to them."

Today, the IV day hospital offers an alternate location for traditional in-patient therapies to take place, including blood transfusions, chemotherapy support, antibiotics through IV, transfusions, blood products and specialized blood tests, complicated dressings and wound care.

There are talks going on to establish a conscious sedation clinic where a patient needs to be put to sleep briefly for procedures like manipulation of broken bones, said MacPhee, and a diabetes education centre is opening as soon as space is found.

MacPhee is also in charge of ambulatory clinics at St. Joseph's, which include four a day in various areas including orthopedics, plastics, medicine, general surgery, endocrinology and active living.

"Patients like to come to St. Joseph's," she says.

"They feel comfortable here.

"They feel a spirituality about the place."