Sitting in amongst the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto Rehab, Toronto General, and Sick Kids, Mount Sinai Hospital is an integral element of University Avenue’s famous 'Hospital Row'. The interconnected web of healthcare facilities lining downtown Toronto’s grand boulevard has been expanding for generations, and that tradition will continue thanks to yesterday’s announcement of a magnanimous $15 million donation to Mount Sinai Hospital from philanthropists Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman. The funding will allow for the expansion of Mount Sinai's Schwartz/Reisman Emergency Centre, which will more than double in size from 11,800 square-feet to 28,100 square-feet.

Rendering of communication station, image courtesy of Top Drawer Creative, Cicada Design, Stantec

This increase in size will enable Mount Sinai to accommodate future growth in emergency patient volume, which is expected to rise from the current 56,000 annually to an estimated 80,000 annually over the coming years. The expansion will add 13 patient bays to the emergency facility, upping the total count to 50. Current centralized and internalized waiting areas will be replaced with sub-waiting areas, allowing for more efficient flow between triage and treatment rooms. The expanded facility will support clinicians and researchers in examining clinically diverse emergency medicine issues including decision making in the emergency setting, improving accuracy and efficiency of diagnosis and treatment, emergency care of emerging infectious diseases and antibiotic resistant organisms, the unique needs of seniors, and optimizing patient flow and experience. 

Rendering of sub-station and waiting area, image courtesy of Top Drawer Creative, Cicada Design, Stantec

Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman have a long history of volunteerism and philanthropy at Mount Sinai. Both are members of the hospital's board of directors, and in 1999, the Schwartz/Reisman Emergency Centre was named in recognition of a major philanthropic gift made at that time. With yesterday’s announcement, the pair’s cumulative investment in Mount Sinai Hospital now totals in at $28 million.

(R-L) Heather Reisman, Gerald Schwartz and Jay Hennick, Chair of the Mount Sinai Board, image by Jack Landau

"This extraordinary gift will not only allow us to better serve the patients who come through our doors every day with better facilities, it will also allow us, through research, to discover more effective and efficient ways of delivering care. Combining initiatives in education, knowledge translation and related efforts, we will add a level of thought leadership to the field that will have wide impact on patient care," said Dr. Howard Ovens, Director of Mount Sinai's Schwartz/Reisman Emergency Centre.

Video courtesy of Mount Sinai Hospital and Angle Media

Additional information and renderings of this and related work at Mount Sinai Hospital can be found in our dataBase file, linked below. Want to get in on the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or voice your opinion in the comments section provided at the bottom of this page.