Tackling the most challenging wave yet
Mackenzie Health and hospitals across Ontario continue to be overwhelmed as COVID-19 cases, including variants of concern, climb rapidly during Wave 3 of the pandemic. As a result, Intensive Care Units in hospitals are filling quickly, leaving the entire health care system under immense strain. Patients are also being moved hundreds of kilometres away from their home communities to hospitals with the resources available to care for them. The Mackenzie Health team continues to meet the challenge of providing safe patient care in an environment where we are experiencing a high degree of uncertainty and stress. We are dedicated to supporting our community and the province in the fight against COVID-19.
Mackenzie Health is also in the midst of our largest fundraising campaign to date. The need to fully equip Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital now that the building is complete, as well as enhance care at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital, remains an urgent priority. In fact, the need has never been greater. We are so grateful for the community support that has resulted in a new milestone in our Ultimate campaign: exceeding the $200 million mark towards our $250 million goal.
All this and more in this edition of the Insider.
The realities of the third wave of the pandemic
Capacity and staffing pressures
As the number of COVID-19 cases in the community continues to increase, Mackenzie Health also continues to treat increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients at both of our hospitals. Volumes at the Emergency Department at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital have reached pre-pandemic levels and patients are arriving sicker with close to 20 per cent requiring admission to hospital as compared to the average rate of admission last year which was 14 per cent. Unfortunately, the number of patients requiring an inpatient bed often outnumbers the staffed beds we have available. Since it opened to support the provincial pandemic response on February 7, Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital has provided some relief, however, capacity pressures in Richmond Hill continue to be a challenge.
We continue to employ creative and innovative solutions to find additional beds and physical spaces to care for patients within our walls. The limiting factor continues to be the staff available to treat all of the patients who come to us for care.
With direction from Ontario Health to ramp down elective surgeries and non-emergent/non-urgent acute care activities effective April 12, we have been able to redeploy some of our surgical and pediatric nurses and physicians to help care for patients with COVID-19. To this point, we have been able to find the staff we need to care for our patients, and we will continue to do everything we can to provide safe care. Contingency planning is underway to secure the health human resources we need to provide care as case counts in our community continue to increase. We know how much of a challenge postponing these procedures is for patients and their families, and as soon as we’re able to resume normal operations, we will.
COVID-19 tests and vaccines
Mackenzie Health continues to support our community by offering COVID-19 tests at our Assessment Centre at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and by administering COVID-19 vaccines at the COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. Just as case counts in the community continue to increase, so too do the volumes at our Assessment Centre. In recent weeks, our teams have conducted close to 1,200 tests each day. We continue to support York Region Public Health in the rollout of the provincial vaccine program and have administered close to 50,000 doses of the vaccine to date. York Region’s dedicated vaccine web page is your best source of information around the vaccine rollout in York Region including how to book an appointment and determining who is eligible to receive the vaccine.
In addition to wearing a mask, washing our hands, and keeping a safe physical distance from others, the COVID-19 vaccine is one of the best tools we have available to us to fight this pandemic. We encourage everyone to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to you.
Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital continues to support the pandemic response
Since opening its doors to care for COVID-19 patients in February, Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital has accepted close to 400 patients from hospitals across the GTA to provide relief to our overstretched health care system. This is the highest proportion of patients transferred as part of the Incident Management System (IMS). Many of these patients have also been transferred from Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. In this way, we have been able to keep many more patients closer to home instead of transferring them outside the region for care.
We know how much our community is looking forward to fully opening Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital the way we had originally planned. As soon as we have an update on future plans to open the Emergency Department and transfer our Woman and Child, Mental Health and Inpatient Stroke programs to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, we will update our community. For the time being, we will continue to support the provincial pandemic response. It is what’s urgently needed at this time, and is the right thing to do.
Please see below for a special message to the Mackenzie Health team and to the York Region community from Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, Christine Elliott.
We appreciate the support we’ve seen from our community and we are counting on everyone’s help in following the restrictions set out in the provincial stay-at-home order. It’s going to take all of us working together to keep each other safe and come out the other side of this pandemic. For an inside look at how the Mackenzie Health team has been caring for patients in our community, take a look at recent feature stories in the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.
The entire Mackenzie Health family is now under one website
Visit the new www.mackenziehealth.ca for everything you need to know about Mackenzie Health and Mackenzie Health Foundation.
As you may have noticed, Mackenzie Health and Mackenzie Health Foundation are now housed under one website. The new website now comprehensively represents the Mackenzie Health family – our two hospitals and community-based locations, long-term care centre and our Foundation. Developed with input from our patient and family advisors, members of the community and subject matter experts, the new website features intuitive navigation and search functions, up-to-date and easy-to-read content, accessibility and responsiveness features, as well as seamless compatibility with mobile devices. See these and all the other features at www.mackenziehealth.ca.
More than $200 million raised
The Ultimate campaign has reached another important milestone, raising more than $200 million towards our $250 million goal to help build and equip Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and enhance care at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. This would not have been possible if it weren’t for the incredible generosity of our donors in this community. Close to 13,000 donors contributed more than 24,000 gifts to bring us one step closer to our $250 million Ultimate campaign goal.
And while we’ve come such a long way, we still need your help.
Given the current health crisis and the immense capacity pressures being felt by Ontario hospitals, the need for community support has never been more important.
Orlando Corporation has generously offered to match all donations raised by the community, dollar-for-dollar, up to a total of $5 million!* This matching gift initiative means that every donation will be automatically doubled — $50 becomes $100 and $100 becomes $200.
Mackenzie Health Foundation signature events taking place in the coming months are all taking place in alignment with public health measures and guidelines. To learn more and participate, visit the Signature Events page on our website.
Stay tuned for more updates …