Niagara Health System

operational

Opportunity The Niagara Health System (NHS) consists of six hospital sites and an ambulatory care centre serving 434,000 residents across 12 municipalities. The redevelopment project resulted in a new, state-of-the-art health care complex that replaced two existing, aging community hospitals in St. Catharines. The project was also necessary in order to bring new regional programs in Niagara so residents could access critical health services closer to home. Innovations The price and construction schedule could only be adjusted in very specific circumstances, moving significant construction risk from the public sector onto the private sector. Payments for the new NHS health-care complex only began after substantial completion and Plenary Health can face financial deductions for failure to meet the standards set out in the Project Agreement. Results The project resulted in over 970,000 square feet of new space including: The Walker Family Cancer Centre, which provides close-to-home treatment for more than 1,200 cancer patients who previously had to travel to Hamilton or Toronto for life-saving radiation treatment; The new Regional Longer-Term Mental Health Centre, which provides longer-term inpatient mental health beds combined with acute inpatient mental health beds and ambulatory care services for Niagara residents; The new Regional Cardiac Catheterization Centre, which provides diagnostic investigation services reducing hospitalizations for heart disease, lowering wait times and improving access to treatment; and Acute and critical inpatient services, emergency and ambulatory services which are all available under one roof with 375 beds. The hospital continues to be publicly owned, publicly controlled and publicly accountable. Medical services will continue to be publicly funded and publicly administered. Eighty per cent of rooms are single patient, the most available in a community hospital in Ontario. CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear) containment capabilities to deal with infectious outbreaks or disasters at the hospital include: Separate handwashing sinks in each patient room; Negative pressure rooms to prevent cross-contamination; Ventilation systems to restrict flow of contaminated air; Separate elevators and corridors for patient transfers; and Separate areas for clean and soiled supplies. Approximately 200 new health-care jobs were created in support of the new regional cancer, cardiac and mental health services once the facility opened.

High