The Vancouver Island Health Authority is offering a way for people to send Christmas greetings to their friends and family who are stuck in the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital for the season.
This year you can stay connected with VIHA’s new Well Wishes e-mail service. A hospital volunteer will receive your message, print it out and deliver it to the patient by hand.
“These days, families are spread out across the province, the country and the world,” said Stephanie Joyce, VIHA’s Project Director of Care Continuum Transformation and current head of the Volunteer Resources department.
“We want to help make it easy for loved ones to stay connected with patients.”
“I was really pleased to receive my Well Wishes e-mail, and I enjoyed the visit from the friendly volunteer who delivered it,” said Donna Carter who received one from a friend.
While it is only available for patients at NRGH, they plan to extend it to other hospitals on the Island.
They note the system can only receive e-mail and will not send back replies or give any patient information.
To e-mail an NRGH patient, send it, including the patient’s full first and last name and room number to: patient.nrgh@viha.ca.