Construction Continues at Lockdown-Exempt Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital

Urbantoronto.ca
April 28, 2020
Jack Landau

A few kilometres north of Vaughan's emerging Downtown, and steps from Canada's Wonderland at Major Mackenzie Drive and Jane Street, construction is progressing on a new $1.8 billion hospital set to serve the growing city. Exempt from the province-wide construction restrictions due to its healthcare uses, the Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital is targeted to open in late 2020.

Designed by Stantec and Zeidler Partnership Architects, the 11-storey facility has been under construction since 2017, and reached structural completion at the end of 2018. Work on enclosing the building and installing its complex medical and support equipment has been ongoing in the time since. The latest photos of the site show that cladding installation has covered much of the hospital, with just a few sections still awaiting their finishes. Most of the current activity is unfolding out of sight of passersby, inside the walls.

A few departments of the hospital are now approaching completion, including Magna Emergency, the Medical Device Reprocessing department, and a pharmacy. One of two emergency departments at the hospital, the Magna Emergency Department will offer 37,000 ft² of space to alleviate Vaughan's overburdened emergency departments. The Medical Device Reprocessing department will be used to clean and sterilize medical equipment for the complex, and the 12,000 ft² pharmacy on the hospital's third floor will include tech features including robots to assist pharmacists

Mackenzie Vaughan is planned to be Canada's first hospital to include fully integrated "smart" technology systems and medical devices that communicate with one another digitally to better serve patients. The hospital will act as a catalyst for a planned Vaughan Healthcare Centre Precinct, a collaborative healthcare district plan being led by the City of Vaughan, with York University, Mackenzie Health, and ventureLAB. We spoke with Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua last year about the future of this district, and more information is available in our November, 2019 article on the subject.