Complex care in New Westminster usually starts with a discharge from Royal Columbian Hospital: an IV, a wound vac, a feeding tube, sometimes a trach. Salve's HCP-licensed clinical team covers Queens Park and Uptown, Sapperton and McBride, Downtown and Quayside and the rest of the city, with most procedures performed by a Registered Nurse and personal-care continuing alongside.
§IV therapy at home: IV antibiotics, IV hydration, PICC line dressing changes and flushes (with physician order), central line maintenance, using the client's hospital-issued or prescribed pump
§Tube feeding and PEG / G-tube management: feeding, site care, basic clog troubleshooting in collaboration with family; complex issues like tube replacement coordinated with the clinic or hospital
§Tracheostomy care: suctioning, airway maintenance, routine trach care alongside the respiratory therapist. We don't manage ventilator settings; that stays with the RT.
§Palliative nursing: pain and symptom management, comfort, family support (distinct from formal hospice, which runs under a separate BC framework)
§Oxygen, BiPAP and CPAP support, suctioning, compression therapy, mechanical-lift transfers
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Who it's for
Families whose loved one is being discharged from hospital with a complex plan (wounds, tubes, infusions, equipment), or whose ongoing condition has grown beyond what personal care alone can hold. Often arranged in coordination with a hospital social worker and the family's medical team.
Hours and schedule
Frequency depends on the plan. Some clients need a daily skilled-nursing visit, some weekly, some on a flexible schedule that wraps around personal care. Caregiver-led shifts have a four-hour minimum; standalone RN visits (a short, specific clinical task: wound change, IV flush, injection) can be as short as one hour. Days, evenings, overnights, and around-the-clock multi-shift coverage all available.
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Hospital-calibre follow-through.
Cases that pass through Royal Columbian often come home with post-surgical work attached, and that's squarely on our clinical list: drain management, suture and staple removal, incision monitoring, wound care, IV therapy on the prescribed pump. RNs perform the clinical visits; caregivers keep the household and the person running between them. Documentation flows back to the surgical team and the family doctor, so the follow-up appointments start from the record.
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Complex care in New Westminster: what families ask.
Can you manage drains and remove staples at home?
Yes: drain management and suture and staple removal are RN-performed services on our list, done on the physician's schedule with the incision monitored between visits.
What if the plan turns palliative?
Then the care turns with it. Palliative nursing (pain and symptom management, comfort, family support) is part of complex care, delivered at home, coordinated with the medical team and distinct from formal hospice.
Where in New Westminster we deliver.
We see New Westminster families in Queens Park and Uptown, Sapperton and McBride, Downtown and Quayside, West End and Glenbrooke, Connaught Heights and Massey Heights, and Queensborough and Port Royal.
What it costs, and how families pay for it (extended health, VAC, CSIL,
and more), is laid out in costs and coverage. The people behind the visits are here: meet our caregivers.
BCCPA-member agencyBC HCP-licensed (Health Care Professionals & Services)WorkSafeBC registeredICBC-certified Personal Care Assistance providerFully insured & bonded caregiversBLS-certified, First Aid trained15+ years caring for BC families since 2011
