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Opened Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital – twice!
The team at Mackenzie Health began the year excited and prepared to finally open our second hospital to serve the western York Region community. After years of construction and months of recruitment, training and testing, the team was ready. But the opening didn’t happen as expected! On February 7, Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital opened exclusively to support the provincial pandemic response with critical and acute care beds to address the surge in COVID-19 patients across GTA.
Between February and June, the team at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital cared for more than 500 patients who were transferred via the province’s Incident Management System from other GTA hospitals and helped prevent the health care system from collapsing during the third wave of the pandemic. This was in addition to the patients already being cared for by the team at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital.
On June 6, Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital officially opened as a full-service community hospital as originally planned. The Magna Emergency opened as did core services and specialty services, including the Woman and Child program, inpatient mental health unit and Sorbara Integrated Stroke Unit, which all moved to their new homes in Vaughan. We also delivered the first babies born at a hospital in the City of Vaughan – a set of twins!
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Administered close to 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines to York Region residents
Between December 2020 and July 2021, Mackenzie Health was proud to support the province and York Region as part of the largest vaccination program in recent history by operating a COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. In the months it was open, our vaccine clinic team administered more than 97,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and was the first to administer a COVID-19 vaccine in York Region. We closed the vaccine clinic in July to be able to devote hospital resources to hospital operations after we fully opened Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital to the community. The vaccine continues to be available at a number of pharmacies and public health clinics across the region. We encourage everyone to be vaccinated as it’s the best tool we have available to end the pandemic.
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Conducted more than 318, 000 COVID-19 tests at the Mackenzie Health COVID-19 Assessment Centre
The Mackenzie Health COVID-19 Assessment Centre at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital continues to provide COVID-19 tests to community members by appointment. Over the course of this pandemic, many health care workers were deployed to administer COVID-19 tests in our Assessment Centre and in congregate care settings across our community. With their help, to date, we have conducted more than 318,000 COVID-19 tests at our Assessment Centre. Thank you to our remarkable team for always stepping up. To book an appointment and for more information, visit mackenziehealth.ca/covid-19.
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Cared for thousands of COVID-19 patients virtually and in our hospitals
Our care teams not only provided care to patients while in our two hospitals, they also provided care virtually in a number of our ambulatory and outpatient programs and clinics. One such program was the COVID-19 home monitoring program pioneered by Dr. Victoria Chan and her team. They enabled hundreds of patients, like Bernie and Shoshana, to stay out of hospital and receive follow-up care at home, while teams in our critical care and medicine units provided exceptional care at both of our hospitals to patients like Karen and Derek as they recovered from the effects of COVID-19.
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Held virtual panel discussions for hundreds of community members featuring our clinical experts
Our health care experts shared their expertise with members of the community in two special virtual panel discussions as we all navigated the challenges of the pandemic together. In March, infectious disease experts Dr. Danny Chen and Dr. Ivan Ying participated in a virtual COVID-19 panel discussion answering questions about the vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. In October, our team of social workers, a crisis intervention worker and a psychiatrist participated in a virtual mental health panel discussion presented by RBC Foundation and addressed our community’s top questions about where to find help and how to support loved ones in prioritizing their mental health during the pandemic.
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Supported the community through the most challenging waves of the pandemic
Mackenzie Health’s community support team managed two long-term care homes in our community challenged with resources and continued to provide training and Infection Prevention and Control best practices to more than 100 congregate care settings, including long-term care and retirement homes across western York Region. They also supported local schools and school boards to ensure that students learned in as safe an environment as possible.
Care teams at both Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital found innovative ways to care for the unprecedented volumes of patients who walked through our doors. Staff were resilient, working overtime and adjusting to an ever-changing environment to ensure patients continued to receive the best care possible despite the toll the pandemic was taking. We continue to do everything we can to support our staff and physicians and are actively recruiting to fill vacancies and ease the pressures that health human resource challenges have placed on our operations and on our people. To date, we have hired more than 2,000 people as we worked to become two hospitals this year.
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Welcomed a new Board Chair
At Mackenzie Health’s Annual General Meeting in July, Fay Lim-Lambie was appointed as the new chair of the Board of Directors. As the current Dean of the Centre for Health Sciences and the Centre for Community Services and Early Childhood at George Brown College, Fay brings a wealth of leadership experience and commitment to making a difference in the lives of the communities we serve. A long-time resident of York Region, Fay has been a member of the Mackenzie Health Board of Directors since 2016 and has already helped guide the organization through periods of incredible growth and change.
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Hosted a Stanley Cup champion
In August, Anthony Cirelli, a Woodbridge native and forward for the champion Tampa Bay Lightning, brought the Stanley Cup to the spiritual care courtyard at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital to meet his newest and littlest fans in a safe and physically-distanced way.
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Partnered with Vaughan Public Libraries to open Vaughan’s newest library branch
In August, Mackenzie Health opened the Mackenzie Health Vaughan Library at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. The library is open to Mackenzie Health staff, physicians, students, volunteers and the broader community giving them access to the library’s resources and experts right within the hospital. Mackenzie Health is also partnering with Vaughan Public Libraries to distribute Welcome Baby Kits with babies’ first library cards to all babies born at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital.
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Expanded and added new programs and services at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital
In the fall, Mackenzie Health and the Ontario Shores Medical Centre for Mental Health Sciences launched a new partnership to provide specialized mental health care services for residents of western York Region closer to home. Ontario Shores began to operate the Integrated Mood Disorders Clinic at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital to provide psychotherapy and interpersonal psychotherapy, as well as brain stimulation treatment for outpatients with mood and anxiety disorders, including treatment-resistant depression.
At Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital, we also expanded our C5 ambulatory procedures space into the former home of our Woman and Child program, now based at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. The Orlando Corporation Ambulatory Surgical and Procedures Centre doubled the space offered for ambulatory clinics and day surgery, including increased capacity for endoscopy, urology and minor procedures. This increased capacity means we can now get procedures done faster, in a refreshed space.
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Won awards for the building and design of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital
The Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital project was recognized with a number of awards for its construction and design and the unique partnerships and collaborative approach that completed the project on time and on budget. Recently, the design of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital earned Mackenzie Health a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver designation which recognizes buildings that reduce environmental impact through design, construction and operation. Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital demonstrates our commitment to environmental leadership by using recycled materials, saving water and energy, reducing waste, creating more green spaces and promoting environmentally-friendly forms of transportation.
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Raised more than $209M towards the Ultimate campaign
The Ultimate campaign reached an important milestone this year, surpassing the $200-million mark of our $250 million goal to build and equip Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and enhance care at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. We wouldn’t be where we are today without the support of our Mackenzie Health community of donors. Thank you to everyone who made a contribution this year – your generosity made a tremendous impact! While we’re thrilled to have opened to the doors to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital this year, our work is not done. Mackenzie Health has the will, focus, leadership and people to realize a world-class vision that will revolutionize how health care is provided for you, your family, friends, neighbours and employees. But we need your continued investment, partnership and commitment to purchase the leading-edge equipment and technology that inspires best-in-class specialists and health care teams at both hospitals. If you would like to make a year-end contribution, visit theultimatesuitsyou.ca.
It’s hard to stop at just 12 – we could go on! 2021 was a year filled with many remarkable milestones and historic moments for Mackenzie Health and more can be found here. We look forward to the opportunities ahead in 2022 as we develop a plan to shape Mackenzie Health’s future and embark on our journey as a two-hospital organization. From all of us at Mackenzie Health, we wish you all the very best for a happy and healthy new year. Click on the image below for a special video recap of the past year.
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