Whistle Bend Continuing Care
The Whistle Bend Continuing Care facility enables the people of Yukon to access end-of-life facilities locally. The Yukon government created this facility to allow the Yukon community to care for the aging population, providing 150 full-time resident beds. Programming combines standard, mental health, palliative and acute care. The building is also designed to facilitate accessible activities to promote wellness.
Zenith commissioned HVAC, domestic water, and lighting and oversaw the dynamic commissioning services this type of facility needs, such as separate wings with segregated needs and systems to support the well-being and care functions of the residents. In addition, we commissioned systems to aid the nursing staff in their duties, including:
- Specific system integration for patient anti-roaming functions, including security, elevators, a GPS module, and local patient tracking. This creates a safer environment for the residents’ varied needs.
- Air systems for additional functions beyond typical ventilation, including smoke control and isolation mode, in case of a pandemic or airborne containment. This requires multiple air-handling units to be sequenced and integrated with the DDC and fire alarms.
Other considerations include smudging ceremonies with an indoor fire pit, a main commercial kitchen, multiple resident kitchens, and private resident and aided washroom facilities. The extreme environmental conditions of Whitehorse’s climate are also a considerable factor and require heat reclamation and wastewater retention tanks to cope with temperatures of -60°C.
Zenith’s ability to identify and define the root causes of issues proved invaluable to the project’s closeout.