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From the National Post:
New women's hospital to have 'heart'
Construction starts in 2008
Tanya Flanagan, National Post
Published: Friday, January 19, 2007
Officials at the New Women's College Hospital announced last night that they are getting a new building, one that may end up feeling more like a family den than a hospital.
At an evening reception in the main atrium of the Ma RS building, the hospital celebrated its rebirth and announced plans for a new building on the 76 Grenville St. site.
"Part of my vision of the new building," said Michele Landsberg, chairwoman of the hospital's board of directors and former Toronto Star columnist, "is that there will be no patient waiting area in the entire place that doesn't have a play area suitable for small children. No woman will have to worry about who will look after her children while she waits for an appointment."
Kids' furniture, toys, yarn and knitting needles are just a few of the things that will give the waiting areas of the new hospital a lived-in feel.
Instead of waiting in impersonal hospital halls, hospital officials want to see patients and their families spending time in a rooftop meditation garden.
And unlike many hospitals that can feel like cold, underground mazes, the new building, which will begin construction in mid-2008 and be completed for 2012, will have lots of natural light.
"In terms of making people feel at ease, natural light is one of the most important things you can bring into a building," Ms. Landsberg said.
Creating a warm and inviting environment, said the hospital's president, Marian Walsh, is especially important in Toronto, where there is a large ethnic population, which has historically encountered barriers to access.
"If you think about the make-up of Toronto, as we have done as an organization, there are a lot of issues around women of ethnicity and how they respond to the hospital and a big inpatient, clinical environment. These people come from cultures where the village provides care and see health care as a community commodity, not housed away in sterile environments," Ms. Walsh said.
"Our opportunity, as Women's College, is to combine state of the art with state of the heart."
Ethnic artwork, bright vibrantly coloured walls, flowing fountains and a more diverse staff are a few of the ways the first independent ambulatory care hospital in Canada will create a neighborhood feel and draw women of ethnicity into the building.
"But beyond the physicial building," Ms. Landsberg said, "women of ethnicity will see other people like themselves and they will hear their own languages being spoken."
The hospital also announced that it will be the first hospital in Toronto to manage its patients using electronic patient records.
According to its research, thousands of lives are lost due to hospital errors and studies show that at least 25% of them can be eliminated with EPRs. Over the next three years, the hospital will select a system, which 10 other hospitals in Toronto have agreed to adopt.
The hospital envisions user-friendly information stations on every corner, where patients can call up their own health record, get information about drugs or search the hospital directory.
"We are taking barrier-free to a whole new level," Ms. Landsberg said.
Women's College Hospital was amalgamated with Sunnybrook Hospital in 1998 as part of the province's hospital restructuring scheme.
On April 1, 2006, eight years later, the hospital regained its independence and became the New Women's College Hospital.
BRIEF HISTORY
1883 Women's Medical College is established. 1947 Developed the Pap test for detecting early signs of cervical cancer. 1948 Became the first clinic in Ontario to screen for early signs of cancer in healthy women. 1973 The first hospital-supported walk-in clinic in Toronto to offer reproductive health care. 1988 Delivered the first test-tube quintuplets in Canada. 1995 Opened the doors to the first Centre for Research in Women's Health in Canada. 1996 Established the first and only women-focused cardiovascular rehabilitation programin Canada. 1998 Amalgamated with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. 2006 Becamean independent hospital again. The first hospital in Ontario to be "unamalgamated."
AoD
New women's hospital to have 'heart'
Construction starts in 2008
Tanya Flanagan, National Post
Published: Friday, January 19, 2007
Officials at the New Women's College Hospital announced last night that they are getting a new building, one that may end up feeling more like a family den than a hospital.
At an evening reception in the main atrium of the Ma RS building, the hospital celebrated its rebirth and announced plans for a new building on the 76 Grenville St. site.
"Part of my vision of the new building," said Michele Landsberg, chairwoman of the hospital's board of directors and former Toronto Star columnist, "is that there will be no patient waiting area in the entire place that doesn't have a play area suitable for small children. No woman will have to worry about who will look after her children while she waits for an appointment."
Kids' furniture, toys, yarn and knitting needles are just a few of the things that will give the waiting areas of the new hospital a lived-in feel.
Instead of waiting in impersonal hospital halls, hospital officials want to see patients and their families spending time in a rooftop meditation garden.
And unlike many hospitals that can feel like cold, underground mazes, the new building, which will begin construction in mid-2008 and be completed for 2012, will have lots of natural light.
"In terms of making people feel at ease, natural light is one of the most important things you can bring into a building," Ms. Landsberg said.
Creating a warm and inviting environment, said the hospital's president, Marian Walsh, is especially important in Toronto, where there is a large ethnic population, which has historically encountered barriers to access.
"If you think about the make-up of Toronto, as we have done as an organization, there are a lot of issues around women of ethnicity and how they respond to the hospital and a big inpatient, clinical environment. These people come from cultures where the village provides care and see health care as a community commodity, not housed away in sterile environments," Ms. Walsh said.
"Our opportunity, as Women's College, is to combine state of the art with state of the heart."
Ethnic artwork, bright vibrantly coloured walls, flowing fountains and a more diverse staff are a few of the ways the first independent ambulatory care hospital in Canada will create a neighborhood feel and draw women of ethnicity into the building.
"But beyond the physicial building," Ms. Landsberg said, "women of ethnicity will see other people like themselves and they will hear their own languages being spoken."
The hospital also announced that it will be the first hospital in Toronto to manage its patients using electronic patient records.
According to its research, thousands of lives are lost due to hospital errors and studies show that at least 25% of them can be eliminated with EPRs. Over the next three years, the hospital will select a system, which 10 other hospitals in Toronto have agreed to adopt.
The hospital envisions user-friendly information stations on every corner, where patients can call up their own health record, get information about drugs or search the hospital directory.
"We are taking barrier-free to a whole new level," Ms. Landsberg said.
Women's College Hospital was amalgamated with Sunnybrook Hospital in 1998 as part of the province's hospital restructuring scheme.
On April 1, 2006, eight years later, the hospital regained its independence and became the New Women's College Hospital.
BRIEF HISTORY
1883 Women's Medical College is established. 1947 Developed the Pap test for detecting early signs of cervical cancer. 1948 Became the first clinic in Ontario to screen for early signs of cancer in healthy women. 1973 The first hospital-supported walk-in clinic in Toronto to offer reproductive health care. 1988 Delivered the first test-tube quintuplets in Canada. 1995 Opened the doors to the first Centre for Research in Women's Health in Canada. 1996 Established the first and only women-focused cardiovascular rehabilitation programin Canada. 1998 Amalgamated with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. 2006 Becamean independent hospital again. The first hospital in Ontario to be "unamalgamated."
AoD
