Checking up on the MacKenzie Vaughan Hospital

Estimated timeframe for construction completion remains 2019

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 6, 2016
By Adam Martin-Robbins

The long-awaited Vaughan hospital is expected to start rising out of the ground this summer, but exactly when patients will begin getting treatment there is uncertain at this point.

“We’ve been full steam ahead and very, very busy in the design process for the new hospital. Obviously, it’s a huge amount of effort when you talk about a facility of this size,” Mackenzie Health president and CEO Altaf Stationwala said in an interview.

“We’ve been working with all the bid teams and we’re pretty excited that, in the next few months, we’re going to get the bids in and then we’re going to evaluate (them) and award the contract this summer - and start construction.”

Stationwala said the estimated timeframe for completing construction remains 2019, but that could change once the three teams competing to build the hospital - Plenary Health, Mackenzie Vaughan Health Partnership, Hospital Infrastructure Partners - submit their final bids.

“We still believe that we can finish construction in 2019, that’s what we’re targeting,” he said. “We won’t know for sure until the final bids come in because they’ll have, obviously, price and schedule being two key points of submission.”

When asked if the facility will open its doors to patients that same year, Stationwala said:

“I’m not going to speculate. We typically see from the industry, a hospital this size is a three to three-and-a-half year build, but we’re fortunate that some things have been done already like the infrastructure work that’s going on now. That obviously helps us and saves time.”

Though the building designs put forward by the bid teams are being kept confidential, Stationwala is excited about what he’s seen so far.

“I think it will be a landmark feature building architecturally, but also more importantly a key health care resource that this community needs,” he said.

The projected 1.2-million-square-foot facility is being built on city-owned land, paid for through the hospital property tax levy, at the northwest corner of Major Mackenzie Drive and Jane Street - just north of Canada’s Wonderland.

The plan calls for it to be outfitted with 80 per cent private rooms, cutting-edge technology and a 35,000-square-foot emergency room equipped to handle about 75,000 visits a year.

Medical equipment for the new hospital is being provided through an 18-year, $300-million partnership with Philips announced back in November.

“It is the first of its kind in size and scale and basically secures equipment for both Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital and the Trench Street Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital,” Stationwala said. “And (it) ensures that we have the latest and greatest technology."

The cost of equipment and furnishings for the new hospital is borne by the community.

The Mackenzie Health Foundation is spearheading a $250-million fundraising campaign, dubbed Exceptional Care Belongs Here, in large to cover the community’s share of the project, which includes equipment, furnishings and a portion of the hospital construction costs.

Magna International announced back in October it is making a $10 million contribution to that campaign.

In recognition of that gift, the emergency department at the new hospital will be named Magna Emergency.

Ingrid Perry, president and CEO of Mackenzie Health Foundation, says though the fundraising drive is still in the so-called “quiet phase,” before the official public launch, there is a lot of interest in supporting the hospital.

“We have six or seven significant gifts that have been confirmed and we’ll be making announcements in due time when the donors are comfortable with that information being shared,” she said,

Perry said she’s “very optimistic” about the direction the campaign is going.

“We’re on track and on plan,” she said. “With the commencement of construction later this year, there will be a fair amount of, we believe, enthusiasm as well when people can see it being real.”

A date has not yet been set for the public launch of the fundraising campaign, but Perry said it will be prior to the opening of the hospital.

“Cultivation and working with donors, it takes time,” she said. “And, of course, we’re welcoming the support of every donor whether it’s a $5 gift or (proceeds from) a lemonade stand right through to the multi-million dollar supporter.”