Mackenzie Health Insider: A “smart” future with safe, quality care

A “smart” future with safe, quality care

We’re 18 months away from opening Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital and making the best possible care close to home a reality. Our community is growing and so are our health needs. We’re excited to open Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital and increase access to care for patients in Richmond Hill, Vaughan, King and across York Region. This means exceptional patient care, better access to leading health care professionals and “smart” technologies and medical devices that support safe, high quality care.

Building a new hospital is about more than bricks and concrete. Every day in Ontario, more than 335,000 patients are treated and cared for by health care teams. On May 1, we celebrated Doctor’s Day and thanked our physicians for their contributions and dedication to patients and families – not only at our hospital, but in the community and across the province. This past week we celebrated Nursing Week and recognized more then 1,100 nurses and their compassionate patient care and health care leadership. Our nurses make an incredible difference in the lives of patiens and their families. Family and friends also honoured beloved individuals with endowments that fund continuing education and professional development. These endowment funds support educational opportunities for nurses and interprofessional staff and help promote clinical excellence to continuously improve the patient and family health care experience.

We’ve also reached another milestone on our two-hospital mission: signing on with leading medical technology provider Hill-Rom to bring “smart” beds to our hospitals and supporting health care professionals by providing technology that supports caring for our growing community.

Pictured here is the Hill-Rom Centrella bed, which is the most advanced digitally-enhanced patient bed with “smart” technology that helps improve patient safety. This technology is coming to Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital in late 2020. Plans to implement features at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital will occur after 2020.

“Smart” beds that support patient comfort and safety

Patients and health care professionals will have the technology needed to support a safe care experience, tailored to the unique needs of every patient. Mackenzie Health will have the most advanced digitally-enhanced beds with “smart” technology that connects to Mackenzie Health’s electronic medical record. These beds help health care professionals improve patient safety and the patient experience. This technology is coming to Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital in late 2020. Plans to implement some features at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital will occur after 2020.

If a patient is at-risk for falls, “smart” beds will automatically set the bed-exit alarm. Beds are equipped with sensors which can help prevent falls by sending an alert if the bed is in an unsafe position. In addition, the beds will integrate with health care professionals’ real-time locating system badges (RTLS) which can be programmed to automatically silence alarms when they enter a patient’s room. In total, “smart” beds monitor up to 35 data points – such as bed position, patient weight, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) mode – and electronically update a patient’s medical record, including how many times they left their bed or how often they have been turned. For health care professionals, this technology will support them in creating a safe, high quality patient experience focused on each patient’s unique needs.

Other features that place these beds in a class of their own, are a digitally-enhanced remote to set personalized comfort settings – like adjusting the firmness of the bed, controlling entertainment – and a nurse call button that provides audio confirmation of calls. The “smart” bed will also deliver verbal prompts that communicate to patients and caregivers, with messages like “the care team has been called” and “brake not set” to support patient safety from all viewpoints.

Pictured here are the latest Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital construction photos, highlighting the Giovanni De Gasperis ♦ Eugene Kohn Learning Centre (left) and the Vic De Zen Family Welcome Centre and feature staircase (right) in the hospital’s entrance.

Constructing our two-hospital future

With spring weather upon us, early landscaping has begun – including installing light pole bases and underground conduits as well as stone retaining walls. Trash and linen chutes and pneumatic tubes are being installed. Pneumatic tubes are a delivery system that uses a vacuum and pressure to move items across the hospital (such as lab specimens and some pharmaceutical drugs), saving staff time from having to walk specific items to their destination.

Mackenzie Health’s Redevelopment and Information, Communication, and Automation Technology (ICAT) teams, in partnership with PCL Construction, have also been participating in pre-board inspections. These inspections involve reviewing construction progress to ensure that all of the services (power, data, plumbing, etc.) are in place before the contractor closes the walls in that particular area. The team also looks for backing in the walls where accessories (glove dispensers, paper towel dispensers, hand rails, etc.) will be mounted to ensure these elements get properly fastened. These pre-board inspections are just one example of the extensive quality management program we have in place with our construction partners to ensure our new hospital is built to the best standards for our community, for years to come.

Exceptional Care Belongs Here

To date, Mackenzie Health Foundation has raised $120 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!