Breathing Space
Countless patients can breathe a little easier thanks to Andrea Sanders and her co-workers, administrative technicians with the McGill University Health Centre’s Respiratory Department. An MUHC veteran and native Montrealer, Andrea has been working at the Montreal General Hospital site for the past twenty years and wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.
From the beginning, her work has been a family affair. It was her sister-in-law who first suggested that Andrea should apply for a job with the Intensive Care Unit. Five years later, she came to the Respiratory Department, which is closely linked to the ICU. There, she became part of a new family of like-minded and hard-working individuals for whom patient care is paramount and job satisfaction comes naturally. When it comes to her work, Andrea couldn’t be happier. “I love it,” she says warmly. “I work with a good group of people. We share the same work ethic, we're all organized, we're all a little bit obsessive compulsive—you have to be. We have a fun group of doctors so it's like a family atmosphere.”
Down a corridor bustling with patients, the Respiratory Department is a busy place and counts eight doctors, three medical secretaries, and one intermediate clerk as part of the team. It also encompasses a pulmonary function lab that employs three respiratory therapists and an asthma educator. Whether she is answering phones, transcribing letters, booking tests for patients, scheduling residents’ rotations, organizing on-call schedules, or booking conference speakers, Andrea makes sure that patients’ comfort and convenience is her top priority. She notes that she and her colleagues are “constantly checking up on things to make sure that patients are successfully transferred through to other departments for whatever treatments they may need. We know they're sick and stressed and anxious and we don't want to add to their stress by letting them fall through the cracks.”
As many patients in the Respiratory Department have chronic diseases that require frequent visits to the clinic, Andrea has gotten to know many of them quite well. “We have such nice patients,” she says with a smile. “You get to know a lot of them over the years and the patients get to know us so it's very comforting for them to know a familiar face.”
Familiar faces have also transformed the MUHC’s Respiratory Department into what Andrea says is “like a small town”, including colleagues at the Montreal Chest Institute and the Royal Victoria Hospital Site. This natural affinity helped make the formation of the MUHC itself in 1997 feel like a natural and barely noticeable occurrence. “Since we were all working together anyway,” explains Andrea, “it just made sense.” When Respiratory medicine moves to the Glen campus through the redevelopment project, Andrea and her co-workers will bring this sense of community with them, creating an atmosphere that will truly make patients breathe easier.
