Mackenzie Health getting ready to open second hospital

Cortellucci Vaughan will be first new hospital to open in Ontario in over 30 years, writes Mary-Agnes Wilson

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 4, 2021
Mary-Agnes Wilson

At Mackenzie Health, our priority is delivering safe care to all of our patients, whether they’re the first patient we treat on opening day at the new Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital, or the tens of thousands of others who will rely on us for care each year. That’s why we’re taking this time to ensure that our staff, nurses, physicians, and volunteers are prepared to provide the best possible care on day one.

Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital will be the first new hospital to open in the province in more than 30 years, and there’s no recent precedent for the work it takes to open a new hospital in this way. While the hospital may look ready to open, there is so much work to do before we can safely deliver care to our community.

Since achieving substantial completion and getting the keys to the building in August, our teams have been working hard to test equipment and train staff. Currently, our teams are installing and testing 30,000 pieces of equipment and furniture. Some pieces of equipment, like a medicine cart, can be installed in a matter of minutes, while our MRI scanners were installed over a period of days.

We’re also training 3,000 staff across our two hospital sites to ensure we provide safe, quality care to patients as soon as the doors open. While some training involves studying orientation manuals, most training will be hands-on. In fact, last month, staff representing a wide range of different hospital departments participated in a series of simulated exercises. These mock patient scenarios are key to ensuring that staff are prepared for any possible circumstances they may encounter when treating real patients.

One example simulated a patient’s journey to hospital after a fall at a long-term-care home with a COVID-19 outbreak. As part of the exercise, the patient arrived by ambulance at our Magna Emergency and was diagnosed with a fractured hip following an X-ray. The patient then went into surgery in one of our operating rooms, recovered in our critical-care space and later in an in-patient unit, all while following COVID-19 protocols. Another scenario tested a pregnant patient arriving at the hospital to deliver twins under high-risk circumstances.

Training staff is about more than learning how to use new equipment and technology and learning where supplies are in a new space. Some staff will need to learn entirely new workflows and ways of doing their jobs. They’re preparing now so that patients can be confident in our team’s ability to provide the ultimate in care on opening day.

Stay tuned as we continue to provide a behind-the-scenes look at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital through regular columns leading up to opening day.