Mackenzie Health marked another significant milestone in our history this week – we opened the doors at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital with an exclusive focus on supporting the surge in critical and acute care volumes in the health care system. More than 40 ICU and medicine patients were transferred to the new hospital yesterday and more than 140 more are expected to be transferred to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital from across the province in the coming days. These are the first patients to ever be cared for at the new hospital.
We know this is not the way anyone anticipated we would open our second hospital, but our incredible team of staff, physicians and volunteers at Mackenzie Health have stepped up to support the current and urgent need in the health care system and we are so proud.
In this edition of the Insider, you’ll see how our staff, physicians and volunteers were celebrated across all Mackenzie Health sites as they arrived for work on February 7, playing such an important role in our collective COVID-19 efforts.
An incredible Mackenzie Health team
Staff at both Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital were welcomed as they arrived for their first shifts on Sunday, February 7, 2021.
The staff, physicians and volunteers at Mackenzie Health are all deserving of so much praise for their adaptability, flexibility, resilience and commitment as our organization acts as a system solution to support the provincial COVID-19 effort.
No one was looking forward to fully realizing our two-hospital future more than the incredible team at Mackenzie Health. All of their efforts over the past few years have been with the ultimate goal of having two full-service hospitals to support our community.
As we were in the final stretch getting ready to open the doors of our second hospital, the Mackenzie Health team was asked to step up for the greater good of the province. And they did so with grace and a determination to do everything they could to support our community.
Final preparations were made to the critical care and general medicine floors of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and some staff and physicians were redeployed from their home departments to ensure enough resources were available to support all the patients who need care as we support the surge in the system. The Mackenzie Health team also ensured patient transfers to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital from Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital were coordinated in a safe and efficient way. They did all this while continuing to support patients and families and regular hospital operations at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and our community-based locations. You can learn more about some of these preparations in recent media stories that aired this past week on CTV News Toronto, Breakfast Television and CTV Your Morning.
“Mackenzie Health staff, physicians and volunteers have done a tremendous amount of work to prepare Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital to open safely for patients, and that work has been incredibly complex as the scope and the parameters of our opening changed due to the pandemic,” said Mary-Agnes Wilson, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Executive. “Thanks to this work and their immense flexibility, adaptability, sheer determination and drive, we are able to support our community and our province in this truly historic way.”
Yesterday, the day the doors opened at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, Mackenzie Health leadership was on hand, alongside representatives from the hospital and Foundation Boards and the Mayors of Vaughan and Richmond Hill, to welcome and thank staff, physicians and volunteers as they arrived to work at both Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital and Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital.
Thank you to our community
Members of the Mackenzie Health senior leadership team, representatives from the hospital and Foundation Boards, as well as Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua and Richmond Hill Mayor Dave Barrow joined to welcome staff as they arrived to treat the first patients at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital.
We understand opening Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital in this way is a big change for the community, especially for residents in Vaughan who were expecting their first hospital to fully open yesterday. We know and appreciate the sacrifice our community is making as we wait a little longer before experiencing everything Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital has to offer.
Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital is uniquely suited to provide the support the system needs to get through this surge. Our second hospital has been purposefully built with mostly single patient rooms that will allow for enhanced infection prevention and control protocols and technological advances that make it Canada’s first smart hospital. It is also ideally located right off Highway 400, in close proximity to the hardest hit regions in the province: York, Peel and Toronto.
This is a temporary solution to help the health care system get through the current surge. It’s important to note that the Emergency Department at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital is closed at this time and programs that had planned to move to Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital – such as Woman and Child, Inpatient Mental Health and Inpatient Integrated Stroke – will remain at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital for now. Once the system stabilizes, we’ll be able to fully open Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital to support expectant parents and their children, those struggling with mental health challenges, patients recovering from a stroke and those in need of surgical or emergency care.
The first patient transfer from Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital arrives at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital on Sunday, February 7, 2021.
Once again, thank you to our exceptional team at Mackenzie Health, our government partners and the residents of Vaughan, King and Richmond Hill for your continued partnership and support. We are also grateful for the support of our community of donors that has come together to raise more than $180 million of our $250 million Ultimate campaign goal. The campaign has helped to build our state-of-the-art hospital and will be vital to purchasing leading-edge equipment and technology that will inspire best-in-class physicians and health care teams across both our hospitals. We couldn’t be more thankful for this tremendous support.
We also want to thank everyone who joined our telephone town hall on January 28. It’s very important for us to have two-way conversations with our community about the changes at Mackenzie Health as well as how we’re supporting the community through the COVID-19 pandemic. If you missed the phone call that evening, the full recording of the conversation can be found on our YouTube channel.