Construction Update: Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital - Building a brighter future

Building a bright future

In just 22 months, Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital will open its doors to patients and families in York Region. With the existing Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital, we will increase access to care for Richmond Hill, Vaughan and King with the addition of Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital. With winter upon us and snow covering the ground outdoors, we’ve turned our focus to building the inside and quickly advancing construction. The transformation is incredible – electrical conduits, plumbing fixture rough-ins and wiring are well underway, drywall is being installed in patient rooms, open stairs in the west tower (between level 0 and 1) are being lifted, the grand staircase linking to the Vic De Zen Family Welcome Centre, our main entrance (levels 0-2) is being prepared for installation and even glass is being mounted in the Giovanni De Gasperis ♦ Eugene Kohn Learning Centre, the most technologically-advanced education facility within a Canadian community hospital. We’re also excited that the new parking structure is being constructed, which will offer more than 690 parking spaces for patients, visitors and families.

As we look towards the future, we’re inspired by all the milestones we have recently achieved and those to come. Here are a few exciting ones to share:

Pictured here is the De Gasperis-Muzzo tower (West tower) starting to take shape.

Completing the design of Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital 

The 1.2 million sq. ft. Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital will complement the care provided at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and be Canada’s first smart hospital, equipped with state-of-the-art technology and medical devices to support excellent care delivery for patients and families. In December, we reached another major construction milestone: finalizing the design.

As you can imagine, designing a hospital is very complex. In 2012, we began designing Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital and it evolved over time to ensure these designs would meet the needs of our growing community and support care delivery to patients and health care professionals alike. We’re proud of the 32 design teams and hundreds of people, including staff, physicians, volunteers, patients and families, who helped design this innovative new hospital. With the designs now final, the team at Mackenzie Health is now developing the plans for how to work effectively in the new space to provide exceptional care on day one or what we call “operational readiness.”  

Intensive Care Unit (ICU) charting station (left). ICU with framing ready for drywall to be installed (right).

Reaching new heights in innovation at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital

Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital has been named one of the 2018 College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Healthcare’s Most Wired award recipients. We also happen to be the only Canadian recipient in 2018. This achievement recognizes our leadership and innovation in introducing health care information technology systems to best support high quality care for patients and families, and comes on the heels of our Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 7 certification.

This accolade reinforces our smart vision for Mackenzie Health which our patients will experience at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and the future Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital.

Gearing up to welcome patients in late 2020

Our health care teams, clinical programs and support services are hard at work exploring how we can best work in these new spaces, including locations of vital sign monitors, charting stations and much more. Importantly, we are laying the groundwork for how our smart technology systems will speak to one another, including real-time tracking of patient, staff and medical device locations to help us respond to medical emergencies and manage equipment efficiently. As the first hospital to be built in York Region in more than 30 years, this stage of construction could not be more important as we build the hospital our communities need and deserve. 

The year ahead is full of milestones and achievements that we look forward to sharing with you. Mackenzie Health’s two-hospital sites have an epic year ahead – from smart hospital beds, innovative firsts in patient engagement technologies, equipment and furniture selection and so much more.

To date Mackenzie Health Foundation has raised more than $116 million towards our $250 million Exceptional Care Belongs Here campaign goal, which represents the community share of the overall $1.6 billion project. Thank you to our generous community!