Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre

operational

Opportunity In 1997 the Royal Ottawa Hospital (ROH) was mandated by the Government of Ontario and the Health Services Restructuring Commission to be the Champlain Health District’s Tertiary, Academic Mental Health Centre. In order to meet this new mandate, it was necessary to evaluate the existing facility against the programs to be delivered. The ROH commissioned a study that concluded the hospital, originally built in 1911, was highly inefficient and in state of deterioration that was not financially viable to renovate. The Brockville Psychiatric Hospital, brought under the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group (ROHCG) umbrella in 2000, was in a similar state of deterioration. The decision was made in December 2001 to build a new facility on the Ottawa campus adjacent to the existing facility using a public-private partnership roughly modeled on the United Kingdom’s Private Finance Initiative. Challenges The project represents an early hospital P3, with procurement occurring before the incorporation of Infrastructure Ontario. As such there was no blueprint to follow through the various stages of the transaction. Due to the phasing of the project, moving into the new facility needed to occur within a ten-day period to allow for the demolition of existing buildings and timely completion of the project. Innovations Using a P3 resulted in a “whole life” approach during design and construction that considered the operational and lifecycle impact of decisions. Results The new 186-bed mental health specialized hospital, teaching and research institute affiliated with the University of Ottawa opened six weeks ahead of schedule. The 400,000 square-foot complex consists of two symmetrical, two-storey in-patient care units; an office tower containing research, education and administration; and a 200,000 square-foot central area housing outreach services, outpatient care, patient services and education and research functions. The hospital board is satisfied with the decision to outsource facility management and related services allowing it to focus on its core service of providing health services.

High