I was very pleased to attend a meeting of the Pelmo-Swanek Community Association last Thursday evening and present an update on Humber’s redevelopment plans. Under Ross Parry’s leadership and with great support from Councillor Frances Nunziata and MPP Laura Albanese, this is a new group near our Church site that in a short time has really organized and engaged the local residents. It was a very good session and I’m looking forward to going back to future meetings as we continue to engage our community on hospital and healthcare issues that matter to them.

There was some big news for Humber River today with the provincial government’s announcement of our design compliance team. HOK Architects Corporation will help us plan and design our new hospital, and work with us to ensure the successful bidder builds us the hospital we design. Lots of work ahead – we’ve already planned a number of stakeholder and committee meetings – more on those in the weeks and months ahead.

The powerful impact of environmental design on new hospital planning can not be overstated. The public expects their institutions, like hospitals, to minimze their environmental impact not just during periods of construction, but also while operating. It is an important concept that we will consider at every step in the planning and design processes for our new hospital.

Understanding the Provincial Campus
June 23

In many of our communications about our new hospital and the Downsview site, our team refers to the "campus." But what does it mean to have our new Hospital of the Future as part of a provincial campus? The provincial government complex, bounded by Highway 401 to the south, Keele Street to the east and Wilson Avenue to the north, is a 74.6-acre campus. Right now, the provincial government complex is currently home to more than 2,300 public service employees from eight provincial ministries.

However, in addition to our 1.5 million square foot acute care new Humber River Regional Hospital, the 'campus' will also be comprised of a new 530,000 square foot Forensic Services and Coroners Complex – for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services – that brings together the Office of the Chief Coroner, the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service and the Centre of Forensic Science on one site, making collaboration between the units much easier. The Complex will offer the world-class forensic capabilities Ontario needs in the years ahead; will add significantly to Ontario's ability to apply innovative science to criminal and public safety investigations, and will accommodate increased capacity for autopsies and forensic science cases.

Overall, the provincial campus will update the delivery of many necessary government services to the community and help Ontario towards achieving its urban growth planning and energy reduction goals. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, the entire provincial campus will be built with the goal of attaining LEED Certification Standards.

By-Law gets Final Approval from Council
June 9

Yesterday, Toronto City Council gave final approval to Amend the Zoning By-Law application that would allow for the development of the new Humber River Regional Hospital on the campus at Keele and the 401. This is great news for our new home and a major step in the City approval process required for the new hospital project. Construction permits and related work authorizations are issued as the project unfolds based on yesterday's approval and the plan of subdivision approval previously granted by Council. The early works on the site are in full swing. When you have a few minutes, drive by the site and check out the excitement!

Request for Qualifications Document Released to Market
May 27

I am pleased to let everyone know that the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) document to design, build, finance and maintain the new Humber River Regional Hospital has been released to the marketplace. The RFQ invites all interested respondents to submit their qualifications for undertaking such a complex project. Interested firms must provide evidence of expertise, experience and financial capacity to Humber River and our partners at the Ontario Realty Corporation and Infrastructure Ontario. Responses are due in late July, with a decision to be made by mid-September. Only the top three proponents of those who meet the RFQ requirements will proceed to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage in October. The RFP is the competition where one of the three will be awarded the contract to design, build, finance and maintain our new 'Hospital of the Future.' This is great news for our hospital and community! Please check back for more updates on this very exciting phase of our redevelopment project.

Caring the 'Smart' bed way
May 13

Creating an inviting and healing environment is a priority as we plan our new hospital. A big part of helping us to achieve that welcoming atmosphere will be the furniture we choose for our main public areas and patient rooms. When it comes to designing our patient rooms, there are different types of patient beds we will have, depending on the area in which you are receiving care. In our higher acuity areas – the intensive care and step down units – we are planning to have 'smart' beds that offer a variety of features and services. These beds will connect to the headwall – allowing for an open source for easy connectivity – and will record the patient's temperature and weight. Technology like this will allow our nurses to be more efficient and spend more time 'caring' at the bedside. There will also be an integrated bedside terminal with a touch screen that will supply internet access, telephone and television services. Using this screen, patients can order meals and possibly place orders from our retail area of the building. We will be learning more about these specific 'smart' beds and the features they offer in the next couple of weeks. I look forward to sharing that information soon.

Quality, Safe and Family-Centered Care at HRRH
May 4

While the environmental component is an important part of our new hospital design – and we will continue to have updates on that topic in the coming days – there are several other elements that will make up our ‘Hospital of the Future.’ I’m sure many of you are wondering what facilities and services this ‘state-of-the-art’ hospital will offer to our community and beyond. One of our main priorities at Humber River is to provide quality and safe ‘family-centred’ care. To that end, I am pleased to tell you that we are planning for at least 80 per cent of our patient rooms to be single patient rooms with a designated ‘in-room’ family area – in every room – that will provide space for loved ones to be close together. Having private rooms is a modern design standard for hospitals, recognized to help patients recover faster and reduce transmission of hospital acquired infections. Infection control management is a very important on-going initiative for our hospital. In addition to single patient rooms, we are also planning for a higher number of airborne precaution rooms so that patients who require ‘true’ isolation will be in the safest environment possible while receiving care. Check back for more information on this and other facilities and services we are exploring for our ‘Hospital of the Future’ later this week.

More on the LEED Part
April 22

Part of meeting the LEED 2009 standard is to incorporate elements in our new hospital that reflect the environmental categories I talked about earlier this week. At this point, we are planning for our new hospital roof to be at least 50 per cent sustainable. We are hopeful that a portion of our sustainable roof will be a garden so that our staff, physicians, volunteers, patients and their families can enjoy the outdoors from an above ground patio with grass and flowers. The other part of the roof garden will help to regulate our building temperature and provide an extra layer of insulation while absorbing rainwater to reduce the strain on overtaxed sewers. We will also be focusing on using this rain water for the irrigation of our new site instead of drawing from the City of Toronto water supply. Stay tuned for more updates on our environmental plans for our new hospital, coming soon. Happy Earth Day!

Humber River Takes the LEED
April 20

At Humber River, our goal is to design one of the most environmentally-friendly buildings in the country. In doing this, we will be following The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System 2009 – the latest version of LEED – to be released this spring.

The system is a way of evaluating environmental performance from a whole building perspective over a building’s life cycle; and provides a standard for what constitutes a green building in design, construction and operation. The rating system is organized into many environmental categories, including: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, Indoor Environmental Quality and Innovation in Design. LEED 2009 standard for new construction and major renovations certifications are awarded in four categories: Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. At Humber River, our goal is to achieve the highest certification possible. Check back for more information this week on how we are hoping to attain our LEED goals and be the first hospital in the GTA to design a hospital to the 2009 LEED standard.

Exploring the Traffic Demand Management Strategy Possibilities for our ‘Hospital of the Future’
April 16

When it comes to the Traffic Demand Management Strategy for our new hospital, minimizing the number of vehicles travelling to the site is our number one priority. That’s why we are planning well in advance and hoping to implement some transit initiatives even before we move to the new building. We have established a work plan with Smart Commute and in the next couple of weeks they will be at our current sites to assess our commuting, traffic and transit needs now and for the future. Together with Metrolinx and the cities and regions of the GTA and Hamilton, Smart Commute is the expert in helping to reduce traffic congestion and improving transportation efficiency. It’s exciting to think that many of the initiatives – as a result of the assessment recommendations – could possibly be a reality for our new site. Among the ideas we are exploring are: the possibility of preferential parking for carpoolers, Zip car stations, locked bicycle storage, transit discounts and routing buses through the Downsview campus. We are looking forward to working with Smart Commute as they will help us to explore enhanced and effective commuter choices for our ‘Hospital of the Future.’

Developing a Traffic Demand Management Strategy
April 14

A big part of reducing the carbon footprint of our new hospital is ensuring we have the most effective traffic and transit strategy possible in place, given the 24 hour nature of our business and the mobility issues faced by many patients.

Humber River is proud to be working in partnership with Smart Commute as we develop a Traffic Demand Management Strategy for the site. Together we are exploring ways to deal with the possible traffic and transit challenges that lie ahead for us. Our goal is to reduce the number of vehicles travelling to the hospital as much as we can, and in turn reduce auto emissions. This will also minimize the parking demand in our lots.

Developing this Traffic Demand Management Strategy is an important initiative that will help us maintain our commitment to environmental protection. Stay tuned for more updates on this component of our redevelopment project in the days to come.

Humber River’s New Home!?
April 9

The MTO Downsview campus is a buzz of activity. If you were driving by Keele Street and Highway 401 last weekend you may have noticed the large construction trailers being moved onto the site. These trailers will house the offices for the on-site construction team and some members of our HRRH Planning Department.

The construction crew has also begun removing asphalt from Block 3 (future home of the Forensic Science and Coroners Court) in order to start the infrastructure early works for essential services, including water and sewer, road realignment and hydro. Click here to see photos. Now that site work has commenced there will be more news as we move forward, so check back here regularly for updates.

Site Services Preparation
March 18
Some important ‘next steps’ to report: the design for the essential site services (including storm, water, sewer, hydro and cable) for the east side of the Downsview Campus has been completed and we are now receiving quotations for the cost of completing the work from a number of local contractors. We anticipate that the contract will be awarded by the end of March and the construction work will begin soon after. This is another important step that ensures we will start building our new hospital – with essential services available to the site – in 2011.

Building Block Schematics
March 5
We are now in the final stages of preparing our Block Schematics submission to the Ministry of Health (MOH). What are Block Schematics? They are descriptions by the architect that show where we envision our services in the new hospital to be located and how patients will travel through the building to reach these services. The Block Schematics element is a very important component of the overall design process because it ensures that services that must be located beside each other fit within the design. For example, since a large percentage of patients visiting the Emergency Department (ER) require x-rays during their visit the x-ray department must be close to the ER. The Block Schematics process guarantees that we’ve found the most direct route for our patients to receive the care they need.

Toronto City Council approves Draft Plan of Subdivision
February 25, 2010
I am very pleased to tell you that Tuesday night Toronto City Council approved our Draft Plan of Subdivision for the MTO Downsview Campus redevelopment project. This is an important stage in the approvals process required by the City of Toronto before we can start construction on the new building. This step also brings us closer to beginning the preliminary works portion on the Campus redevelopment; including, road realignment; water and sewer enhancements and hydro upgrades which must be completed before we start building our new hospital. The Draft Plan as approved by Council last night can be seen here: http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2010/ny/bgrd/backgroundfile-26743.pdf

North York Community Council Presentation Tomorrow
February 8, 2010
Tomorrow is another important step in our redevelopment process. Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC) and HRRH are going to the North York Community Council meeting and looking forward to presenting the final report on the draft plan of subdivision application for the entire Ministry of Transportation campus which includes our new hospital. Approval by community council is an important step as we move forward with our vision to create Ontario’s First Digital hospital.

More Good Green News
February 2, 2010
Even though our new hospital isn’t built yet, I’m thrilled to let everyone know that we’ve already begun trialing many green initiatives – for our new hospital – at our current sites. In June, we will be installing a white roof on approximately 11,500 square feet of our Finch Avenue site. We are really excited to be one of the first hospitals in Toronto to be trialing this type of ‘green’ initiative. Unlike traditional roofs – as much as 40 degrees hotter than white roofs – white roofs do not convert sunlight into heat but reflect the sunlight back into the atmosphere. This reduces the air conditioning requirements within the building itself and decreases the operating costs for the hospital. Right now, our planning calls for at least 50 per cent of our new hospital roof to be sustainable. Read more about our commitment to being green on the front page of February’s Hospital News!