Business in Vancouver’s “How I Did It” feature asks business leaders to explain in their own words how they achieved a business goal in the face of challenges. In this week’s issue, Andrew Williamson, executive producer for Lark Productions’ Emergency Room: Life and Death at VGH, talks about shooting the new documentary series in the emergency room of Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) for Knowledge Network.
“Knowledge Network did a call for submissions. They wanted to do a series set in an emergency room, and we submitted a pitch. It’s unusual, in this day and age, to do a documentary series. A lot of content is what you might call docu-soap or docu-reality, and Knowledge was committed to us documenting the stories that happened and not having to create drama.
“What you see is very much the day-to-day workings of a hospital. Our strategy was to focus on the staff as a way to tell the story because we felt we’d seen enough shows where the focus was the patients. So we chose a busy urban hospital and look at the point of view of the frontline staff.
“We started with one hospital (St. Paul’s) and got quite far down the road with them before they decided they didn’t want to proceed. But VGH was interested. It was a show by a public broadcaster with a company that was very committed to the documentary angle, so there were no concerns stories would be fabricated.
“We spent a lot of time ensuring we had protocols and guidelines in place to handle it sensitively and to make sure patient care was top priority. The main conversation was how to make two very different worlds work together: the world of the film crew and the world of an emergency department.
“We spent a lot of time preparing for being in that environment, including taking the tests hospital staff take, getting flu shots, understanding their process and workflow. So when we did start filming, we knew when to get out of the way. We didn’t just show up one day with cameras.
“We concentrated filming over four months, there was a five-person film crew, and they were in the hospital filming four to five days a week. We became part of the furniture. There are days when very little happens, and there are days when a lot happens.
“In our creative development, we identified a number of staff that we thought would be good to concentrate on. There are probably 12 core characters over the series: unit clerks, nurses, ambulance, paramedics.
“The idea behind the series is to add to the discussion about health care, so we launched a very ambitious website to accompany the series to really start a discussion. There’s a section called “The Pulse,” which asks visitors questions about topical issues; for example, dying with dignity and the plight of the homeless in the health-care system. There’s also a section of the site called “Scar Stories,” where you can upload your own emergency room experience.”
