Mackenzie Health Insider: A new year brings new hope

A new year brings new hope

This past year has been one of unprecedented challenges as we navigated through a global pandemic and prepared to open our second hospital, but there were plenty of milestones to celebrate as well.

In this edition of the Insider, we’ll recap some of these efforts and achievements as we look ahead to a brighter 2021.

Managing capacity challenges amid a pandemic

Screeners like Liubov helped keep everyone at Mackenzie Health safe during the pandemic.

The year began with Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital featured as one of the busiest emergency departments in the province. We were experiencing unprecedented patient volumes and were working through capacity challenges even before the pandemic. We developed contingency and surge plans and introduced MackenzieHelps. This was a new way to help those with complex care needs continue their care safely at home to help us treat more patients who need acute care in the hospital.

Early in the new year, we received funding from the provincial government to make necessary infrastructure improvements at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. The investment, through the Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund, went towards fundamental infrastructure improvements that will allow us to continue delivering safe, quality care to patients.

Not long after we hosted government officials for that funding announcement, Mackenzie Health and the health care system as a whole needed to adapt and adjust to a new reality as we learned how to operate under an ever-evolving pandemic environment. At Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital, we:  

• created two dedicated COVID-19 units;
• expanded our critical care space with an additional eight critical care beds funded by the provincial government;
• opened two COVID-19 Assessment Centres offering tests to our community seven days a week;
• opened a cold and flu clinic providing access to care for non-urgent symptomatic patients to be assessed by a doctor;
• made it possible for existing patients to book their appointments online using the new SMARTScheduling feature in MyChart; and  
• opened a COVID-19 vaccine clinic to support the provincial government’s vaccination program.

Our continual investments in smart technology at both of our hospital sites earned our team at Mackenzie Health a number of awards and recognition this year. We once again earned the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Digital Health Most Wired recognition for our use of technology and data analytics as we concentrated our efforts in the way we delivered care during the pandemic. This past June, we also received the 3M Health Care Quality Team Award from the Canadian College of Health Leaders for our use of real-time data to improve care for stroke patients. We also became the first health care organization in York Region and among the first in Canada to offer patients the ability to download their health records right on their own iPhone through the Apple Health Records feature.

Preparing to open our second hospital

When Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital opens in February, it will work in tandem with Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital to double access to care for our community.

We achieved so many remarkable milestones as our teams continued construction on our second hospital this past year. In June, we celebrated the Cortellucci family’s $40 million donation to build and equip our new hospital – the largest single donation in Mackenzie Health’s history – by introducing Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital to our community.

At the end of the summer, we also celebrated achieving substantial completion as we officially took possession of the building with a ceremonial hand over of the keys – or in the case of Canada’s first smart hospital, a swipe card! The work of so many hard-working individuals including our partners in the project consortium made up of our construction crews, architects, project consultants, vendors and government along with the incredible support of our community members collectively helped us get to that point.

As we continued the important work it takes to get a hospital ready to open to safely care for patients, we endeavoured to bring our community along on the journey with us. We shared sneak peeks as technology and equipment like our MRI and CT scanners were delivered and highlighted different areas of the hospital as they neared completion throughout the year. These behind-the-scenes previews will continue until opening day as we do everything we can to show our community how we’re getting ready to improve access to care.

We also made an effort to showcase the work of thousands of our staff, nurses, physicians and volunteers as they train and test every possible scenario to be ready to treat patients when we open the doors to our second hospital in February.

Thank you to our community

Messages of support like this card made by a young member of our community do so much to keep spirits up.

None of the progress we made this past year would have been possible without the support of our community. Continued donations to the Ultimate campaign have allowed us to raise more than $181 million towards our $250 million campaign goal. Transformational donors like Promenade Shopping Centre partners Liberty Development Corporation and the Serruya family, Pfaff Automotive Partners and R. Ferri Automotive have inspired the generosity of others in our community. The support of our community as we reimagined our signature events this year to fit the current circumstances also allowed us to have successful UniversalCare Strides for Stroke, Tee Off for Health, Ride for Health and Ultimate Un-Gala events in a safe way. Collectively, these annual events raised more than $1 million to build and equip Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and enhance care at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital.

The support of our community is also how we’re going to make it through the pandemic. As you can imagine, the pandemic is also taking a toll on our health care workers in so many ways. Messages of support and monetary donations to our COVID-19 Response Fund have energized and motivated our front-line staff as they do their jobs under trying circumstances. The most important way our community can support the team at Mackenzie Health is to continue to follow public health guidance by practicing physical and social distancing, wearing a mask and washing your hands. As difficult as it has been to stay home and only celebrate the holidays with those in our immediate households, it goes a long way towards helping health care workers manage the volumes in our hospitals.

From advances towards a COVID-19 vaccine that will be available to everyone in the very near future, to opening the first net new hospital in Ontario in more than 30 years in February, there’s so much to celebrate this coming year. From all of us at Mackenzie Health, we wish you all the very best for a happy and healthy new year.