Mackenzie Vaughan hospital reaches for the top 2 months ahead of schedule

Topping off point for concrete pour a milestone for 'smart hospital' expected to open in fall 2020

Yorkregion.com
October 30, 2018
Tim Kelly

Two years after it broke ground, the $1.6 billion Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital marked a major milestone last Thursday by reaching the highest point in its construction.

It’s expected the 1.2 million square-foot facility will open in about two years time, and a number of dignitaries were on hand Thursday to mark the construction “topping off” celebration for the first hospital built in 30 years in the region.

Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and deputy premier Christine Elliott, King-Vaughan MPP Stephen Lecce, Vaughan-Woodbridge MPP Michael Tibollo, Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua and other MPPs and city and regional councillors joined with Mackenzie Health president and CEO Altaf Stationwala to mark the occasion.

Together with donors, patients, hospital staff, physicians, and many others, thousands of tokens were poured into one of the hospital’s final concrete slabs where they will rest forever.

The site at Jane Street and Major Mackenzie Avenue has been years in development and is a joint effort between the province, the region, the city and donors.

“This is a really important milestone in the construction of this hospital,” said Elliott.

“The Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital represents the first new hospital built in this region in the last 30 years…I am really impressed with the patient-centred design of this hospital. It’s a really, really important focus,” she added.

“We are two months ahead of schedule,” said Stationwala who said topping off signifies that “we have reached the highest portion of the concrete pour.”

He said when the new hospital opens in late 2020 it will meet the massive health care challenges this growing community faces.

He added that “one of the great things MacKenzie Vaughan will be known for is smart technology.”

He went on to give an example explaining how it would work: “Today in most hospitals if there is a cardiac arrest you will hear an overhead page, code blue, many things have to happen to ensure that we can facilitate cardiac resuscitation; the team has to arrive to the location, medications have to be stopped, the bed has to be lowered, alarms have to be turned off.

“In the smart hospital, all of these things will be digitized to make sure these things happen that much faster; the physiological monitor that’s monitoring that patient, it will automatically talk to the infusion pump to stop certain medications before the team arrives; the team will be paged silently and will have special tags on their IDs so that doors open and elevators arrive before they even get there; all this saving precious seconds, and saving lives.”

Bevilacqua said “it brings me much joy to see a celebration of people pulling together for a common goal.”

Tibollo said “this is an amazing accomplishment… it is an incredible opportunity for the city of Vaughan to attract doctors much needed in this area and specialties that are much needed as our population continues to grow.”

Lecce said the government is “absolutely committed to the success of this hospital and our government is very much looking forward to the opening in 2020. We know we will do more for the families who seek accessible, local health care.”