Mackenzie Health Insider: We’re only months away from opening our second hospital!

We’re only months away from opening our second hospital!

We’re so close to having two hospitals as part of the Mackenzie Health family. It’s taken a lot of hard work by so many people to get to this point, but we’re now only months away from welcoming patients at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital when it’s scheduled to open its doors in early 2021.

Our teams are in the hospital, training and testing to ensure we’re prepared to deliver safe, quality care on opening day. Equipment and technology like our MRI scanners continue to be installed and tested every day, and our clinical teams are conducting emergency preparedness exercises and interdepartmental testing simulating real-life scenarios to help make sure we’re ready once we begin treating patients in the hospital.

Our Woman and Child program is also gearing up to make the move to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, all while continuing to provide care to moms and babies at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital until our second hospital opens.

All this and more in this edition of the Insider.

Testing for every possible scenario

Dr. Sull, one of our emergency department physicians, and our patient volunteer, Kim, participate in a mock training exercise in Magna Emergency at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. 

Turning a building into a hospital is about more than installing equipment and testing smart workflows, although those are definitely important. In order to be able to treat patients safely on day one, our staff, nurses, physicians and volunteers need to be trained and oriented to a new work environment and, in some cases, a new way of doing their jobs.

Before opening day, 3,000 staff will be trained across both of our hospital sites to make sure we provide safe, quality care to patients as soon as our doors open. While some training involves studying orientation manuals and becoming familiar with the layout of a new hospital, most training for the Mackenzie Health team is hands on.

In fact, staff, nurses and physicians have been training and testing for months. Earlier this month, staff representing a wide array of hospital departments participated in a series of real-time simulated exercises.

One example simulated a patient’s journey to hospital after a fall at a long-term care home with a COVID-19 outbreak. As part of the exercise, the patient arrived by ambulance at our Magna Emergency and was diagnosed with a fractured hip. The patient then went into surgery in one of our operating rooms, recovered in our critical care space and later in an inpatient unit, all while following COVID-19 protocols. In this way, staff from a number of departments including infection prevention and control, pharmacy, patient registration and medical imaging, were able to test out a scenario in real time in the new hospital. These mock patient scenarios are a key step in ensuring that staff are prepared for any possible circumstances they may encounter when treating real patients.

A variety of emergency preparedness exercises were also completed with our fire, paramedic and police community partners to make sure we’re prepared for even the most challenging scenario.

Read more about our teams’ preparations in a special feature in the Toronto Star.

Preparing for the ultimate deliveries

A birthing suite at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital where moms will labour, deliver, recover and receive postpartum care. 

The staff, nurses and physicians who make up the Woman and Child program at Mackenzie Health have been delivering quality care to moms, babies and their families for years at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. Their breadth of knowledge and expertise means that families have access to expert nurses and doctors right here, close to home. Our team in the Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinic even specializes in high-risk pregnancies. Our recent partnership with Markham Prenatal to offer standardized quality prenatal education to new moms and their families, is another way the Woman and Child team at Mackenzie Health is continually looking for new ways to provide the best possible care to families in our community.

When it moves to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, the program will feature a new model of care where most moms will labour, deliver, recover and receive postpartum care in the same private room. There will also be plenty of space and an extra bed for family to spend the night. Families will also be able to take advantage of a dedicated Birthing Entrance on the west side of the hospital, with an elevator that will take them straight up to the birthing suite.

Babies who need additional monitoring and care will stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This unit will feature 12 private suites for parents to stay with their newborns 24/7 – there are even rooms for twins so their families will be able to stay together. The NICU will also feature a family lounge with a kitchenette offering families a place to recharge while their babies are being cared for in the unit.

Sick children will also have access to a Pediatric Urgent Care Clinic (PUCC) at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. Here, Mackenzie Health’s specially-trained nurses and pediatricians will offer fast-track assessment, testing and treatment for young patients referred by their community physician, midwife or the emergency department.

Every space at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital has been designed through the eyes of the patient. To see how, Mayura, one of the managers of the Woman and Child program, has given you a sneak peek inside:

Community donors are making a difference

We wouldn’t be this close to opening our second hospital without the support and generosity of our community. We’ve already raised $178 million towards our Ultimate campaign goal of $250 million. We’re so close and we know we’ll get the rest of the way there with the continued support of our donors.

Contributions from community donors are already being put to good use. Our community’s generosity is funding technology and equipment like the two Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners that were recently delivered and installed at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. These MRI scanners will support the medical imaging department at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital as our teams get ready to conduct an additional 24,000 medical imaging exams each year.