Health Care Expansion

[big W]

We need more of this stuff in across the country. This is one way the money in Alberta can do good for all Canadians. This is a new facility that is set to open in Edmonton. What are some of the facilities across the country.

Aim is to cut wait from 82 weeks to 20
Hospital crunch in Capital Health region forces Royal Alex to cancel five to six joint surgeries a month
Jodie Sinnema, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Saturday, January 06, 2007
EDMONTON - A new $60-million stand-alone orthopedic surgery centre at the Royal Alexandra Hospital will help lower wait times for hip and knee replacements and reduce cancellations of the operations, says Capital Health.

"It will be the first of its kind in Canada," said Joanna Pawlyshyn, vice-president and chief operating officer at the Alex. "It should allow us, in the end, to provide the best access to joint surgery in Canada right here."

Construction on the new 80,000-square-foot facility, funded out of Capital Health's budget -- which will be erected on what is currently a surface parking lot across from the emergency department and south of the Hys Centre -- should begin this spring and be completed in early 2009.

Located at 102nd Street and 110th Avenue and linked by pedway to the hospital, the building will have two operating rooms, 56 beds and about 150 staff. The goal is to have hip and knee patients up on their feet and back home four days after surgery.

The rooms are significantly larger than older ones, providing enough space for physiotherapists to work directly at a person's bedside instead of having patients wheeled to a rehabilitation space.

Capital Health is already rolling out a new system that aims to have 90 per cent of the joint-replacement operations done within 20 weeks of the initial consultation, down from a previous 82 weeks. About 50 per cent of the 3,000 annual joint operations in the region are done that quickly now.

That target should be reached within a year, even before the new building is complete, since operating rooms and beds at the Royal Alexandra, Misericordia and University of Alberta hospitals have been devoted to the program. The new facility will help surgeons maintain that target and see the number of joint surgeries increased to 3,600 a year.

"It will allow us to become super-efficient, to improve the length of stay so we can move patients through more quickly and have them receive better care and be able to move into active lives more quickly," Pawlyshyn said.

"It will provide certainty to the public when they have their procedure booked that it's not going to be bumped because we've got emergencies. We're separating that type of work so that makes it different and unique."

Currently, about five to six joint surgeries have to be cancelled each month because of pressures in the hospital, said Dr. Don Dick, the medical lead of bone and joint health in Edmonton. Every hospital needs more space and more beds to keep up with the growing population.

The orthopedic surgery centre is part of a number of ongoing projects at the Royal Alexandra hospital that includes 14 new laboratories in the newly constructed Lois Hole Hospital, which will focus on women's and children's health issues, as well as a new $3.5-million in vitro fertilization clinic, scheduled to open this spring.

The new orthopedic surgery centre will move at least some of the hip and knee operations out of the main hospitals, freeing up room there to complete other services, Dick said.
In the next year, the administration will have to decide if all joint-replacement surgeries will be done out of the new facility or if some will remain at other hospitals.

In the last year, Capital Health saw a 10-per-cent jump in the number of people needing joint replacements and expects that rate of increase to continue for the next few years, especially with the aging population.

Other orthopedic day surgeries, such as ligament reconstruction and arthroscopy of the knee, will also be performed in the new building to maximize its use. The full load of knee and hip replacements will be phased in over time.

As physicians, we're overjoyed with the new facility," Dick said. "To have a facility where there is real consistency and patients flow through the system in a very standardized manner means that's better for patient outcomes. There is less room for variability. There is less room for error."

[LordMandeep]

There is finally a 2nd hospital opening up in Brampton (435k) outside Toronto.

Its masssssssssssivvvvvvvveeeeeeeee.....


Another two Hospitials could be added in this area. One In York region the other in Durham region, but thats like 10-15 years atleast.

[Daver]

Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary is Alberta's Largest Hospital, and Western Canada's busiest... Oh, and always under construction.



The Foothills Medical Centre is a tertiary care referral centre for southern Alberta, southeastern British Columbia, southwestern Saskatchewan, and areas south of the Canada/USA border. Located at 1403 29 St. N.W., the medical centre has a unique partnership with the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine and the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, all sharing the same site. This effective collaboration integrates clinical service, research and education to provide Albertans with specialized programs that respond to their health care needs. The Centre features both the North and South Tower, Grace Women's Health Centre, the HSAA building, along with two new healthcare towers as part of the HSAA, and a specialized Cancer Centre, which has lately been renovated to serve palliative patients.
More than half a million patients visit the Foothills Hospital each year. With a bed count of over 1,200 and staff numbering over 7,500, the Foothills offers a wide range of services that include a trauma centre for its catchment area, high risk maternity and neonatal intensive care unit, renal dialysis, multiple transplantation (kidney, pancreas, tissue and corneal), specialty programs like cardiology, clinical neurosciences and bone marrow transplantation, as well as PADIS (Poison and Drug Information Service), the HOPE (Human Organ Procurement and Exchange) Program, and the PARTY (Prevent Alcohol and Risk-related Trauma in Youth) Program. In addition to these on-of-a-kind programs, the Foothills Hospital houses 22 operating theatres including a specially designated trauma O.R., a 24-hour Emergency Department, a 22-bed Intensive Care Unit and a 24-bed Cardiac Care Unit. The Foothills Medical Centre also boasts an Intraoperative Magnetic Resonance System, the only one of its kind in the world.[1] Currently, the Emergency department at Foothills Medical Centre is undergoing renovations to accommodate more emergency patients by providing 25 more beds, which essentially reduces emergency wait times for patients.

History



A 1966 informational pamphlet gives the following description:

"Foothills Hospital overlooks the north bank of the Bow River at 13 Avenue and 29 Street N.W.
Largest completely new hospital of its kind constructed in North America; 765,000 square feet of floor space; 2,000 rooms. Patient capacity: 766 beds, 116 bassinettes, 15 day care beds. Staff when the hospital is in full operation: 1,200-1,500. Cost: $21,000,000 for construction of hospital, School of Nursing and Power Plant — $5,000,000 for initial equipment. T-shaped hospital building, 12 storeys plus basement. The cross-piece of the T includes all nursing units. The back wing or stem of the T includes all clinical and other service departments and is 10 storeys high. A 100 bed auxiliary hospital is planned for later construction on site; also a 370 bed psychiatric hospital which will be operated under separate administration. Capital financing for construction was by the usual Federal Provincial grants plus a $17 million debenture issue to be retired by the Provincial Government over a 20 year period. Operation costs will be met by the standard per diem payments made under Alberta Hospitalization benefits. Complete hospital control is vested in the board of Management."
"Pathology labs have advanced equipment to provide a complete pathology service.



Expansion:
$300 million

The Mc Caig Tower Located on the Foothills Medical Centre complex in Calgary, Alberta, this new facility is the first phase of a $1 billion major ‘redevelopment’ plan for the existing hospital.

All aspects of design and planning embrace flexibility, efficiency, functionality and future growth considerations. At completion, this phase will house new operating suites, an ‘all new’ intensive care unit, new medical laboratories, as well as inpatient units having views of the Bow River Valley.

Although constructed at the ‘back’ of the existing hospital, a new road system and interchange over Calgary’s 16th Avenue will provide a new west entrance to the hospital complex.

A new 615 underground parkade will be developed as part of this phase of the project.

New Construction: Intensive Care Unit (36 bed expansion) & Diagnostic Imaging Satellite; Inpatient Units (3 x 30 beds); Eight (8) new Operating Suites; Shell space for 16 addition OR’s in future; Surgical Processing Dept.; MSK Clinic with Diagnostic Imaging; Administration Spaces for Clinical Depts.; Lobby and Retail Spaces; Connecting Corridors & Links

Renovation & Additions: Emergency Department Renovation & Expansion (70 stations); Admissions – Main Floor; Blood Gas Lab – Main Floor; Rehabilitation Department – Third Floor; New Waste Handling & Loading Docks; Power Plant & Pump House Additions; New Grounds Maintenance Building


Phase#1


The Future of Foothills

2004 Phase 1
Infrastructure Improprement (Renovation)

This phase involves major upgrades to the Special Services Building to convert the inpatient units from continuing care to acute care. Infrastructure will be upgraded throughout the building to accommodate this conversion. It also includes the development of additional parking facilities on site. These are needed to address the current shortage of parking at peak times, and to add parking that will be needed for future developments such as the University of Calgary’s Health Research Innovation Centre (HRIC). A number of stalls will be lost when the 37th Street interchange is built over 16th Avenue, and they need to be replaced prior to the beginning of construction.

Phase #2a


2006 Phase 2a

This phase includes the addition of a five-storey podium behind the current Main Building, to accommodate a larger Intensive Care Unit, with 14 additional beds. Lab facilities will be consolidated and replaced, operating rooms will be added and replaced and Diagnostic Imaging (DI) will be expanded in a more convenient location. This phase also anticipates the completion of the 37th Street interchange at the west corner of the site, and a new ring road around the Foothills Medical Centre

Phase #2b


2010 Phase 2b
Addition of New Hospital

This phase incorporates the first major building addition to replace old and aging facilities. It will be comprised of a five-storey podium, containing such things as additional surgical suite, DI, lab, cardiac services and other clinical supports. This podium connecting to the phase 2A addition would provide the majority of specialty beds for the site. A six-storey tower on top of the podium will provide two 32-bed inpatient units per floor (total around 384 inpatient beds). At this point, the Foothills Medical Centre would be comprised of approximately 200 beds in the Special Services Building, 400+ in Phases 2A and B of new buildings and the required remainder for the site within the existing main building

Phase #3


2016 Phase 3
Completion of New Hospital

This phase of development would mirror Phase 2, with an additional five-storey podium, housing a new emergency department and additional clinical supports and ambulatory services, with a six-story tower housing further inpatient units. This addition will replace any remaining services located within the Main Building, South tower, Grace Women's Health Centre and North Tower.

Phase 4


2020 Phase 4
Remove Main Building

Completion of phase three will allow removal of the Main Building with replacement to allow connections between the new facilities, the SSB Cancer Centre and the University facilities.

phase 5


2022 Phase 5

Phase anticipates the removal of the South Tower, North Tower and Grace Women's Health Centre and the potential addition of some small buildings on-site that would be the maximum development that the site could accommodate. These additional buildings might provide additional space for the Cancer Centre, University or private partnerships, but are not required as a part of the program of services to be provided by the Region as described in the Master Program for the Foothills Master Plan.