The Ottawa Hospital

Finishing touches┬áThe Ottawa HospitalÔÇÖs vice president of planning, Cameron Love, tells Jenn Monroe that its new master plan is right on schedule. Although it has completed much in the past several years, The Ottawa Hospital is looking forward. Cameron Love, vice president of planning, support services and clinical programs, is doing much to guide the shape of healthcare services for the 1.2 million people that live in the Greater Ottawa region.In 1998, four Ottawa city hospitals merged to create The Ottawa Hospital, and since 2000 the organization has been working on a $450 million expansion and renovation project at its three locations: the Civic, General and Riverside campuses.Its first master plan has created The Ottawa Hospital of today, which features centers of excellence at each campus. The Civic Campus houses the neurosciences, trauma, vascular and cardiac centers of excellence; the General Campus centers of excellence include cancer care, thoracic surgery, Level III neonatal care, transplant services and the bone and joint program; and the Riverside Campus focuses on outpatient centers of excellence, including eye care, arthritis, diabetes, womenÔÇÖs health and kidney care. ÔÇ£We can maximize efficiencies with whole teams on one campus,ÔÇØ Love says.At the core of the organizationÔÇÖs initial efforts was the need to rebuild its critical care services, which Love says is its ÔÇ£primary growth area of service.ÔÇØ To do this, The Ottawa Hospital significantly expanded the General Campus, adding a new critical care wing with 17 operating rooms, 32 ICU beds, a 32-bed recovery room, a surgical day care unit, an instrument processing unit and a minor procedures unit. ÔÇ£The Critical Care Wing is the cornerstone to our entire development project,ÔÇØ he says.The Ottawa Hospital also is in the midst of a $30 million expansion of GeneralÔÇÖs emergency department, which is slated for completion in 2010, as well as a $76 million expansion of its cancer center. In addition, this expansion includes the development of a $15 million cancer research center as part of its academic mandate. Furthermore, as part of its expansion plans The Ottawa Hospital is leading an innovative model for the provision of cancer services in its region. Through a partnership with the Queensway-Carleton Hospital, an $80 million satellite cancer center is being developed in the west end of Ottawa. The satellite will be an extension of TOHÔÇÖs cancer center and developed at the QCH site. This model will ensure that TOHÔÇÖs cancer programs and services are provided to patients across the region, serving those as close to home as possible. Love says both the cancer center expansion at the General Campus and the satellite center at QCH will be operational by January 2010.Renovations at the Riverside Campus have been equally extensive. Ninety percent of the seven-story, 250,000-square-foot building was renovated back to concrete to accommodate a new mix of services. Today it offers outpatient care, with each of the top four floors home to a center of excellence in the areas of womenÔÇÖs health, ophthalmology/optometry, diabetes, and kidney diseases. In conjunction with the creation of the Riverside dialysis services, The Ottawa Hospital also partnered with other regional hospitals to provide dialysis in those facilities, again tapping into that regional model of care. ÔÇ£We provide the doctors and nurses and program expertise in these communities so that patients receive care close to home and donÔÇÖt have to travel to us,ÔÇØ Love says.While the Civic Campus underwent expansionÔÇöadding a 35,000-square-foot emergency department, doubling the size of the intensive care unit, adding new units for nuclear medicine, mental health and short-term rehabilitationÔÇöthe current site is land-locked, unable to go up or out any further. A recent master planning exercise confirmed this and has recommended the development of a new Civic site. ÔÇ£From a financial and operational standpoint, it was clear we needed to build a new Civic Campus for the future,ÔÇØ Love says. This new Civic Campus is the cornerstone of The Ottawa HospitalÔÇÖs 2020/21 Master Plan. The vision for this new plan is supported by the gains the organization has made in integrating three very different hospitals into one culture. ÔÇ£You can build all you want, but if your organization is not integrated around the CEOÔÇÖs vision, you wonÔÇÖt be successful,ÔÇØ Love says. ÔÇ£The planning process this time around was more integrated and will help us as we continue to move forward.ÔÇØ In 2008, the organization identified two preferred sites for this new campus, and both are currently under review. No matter which is approved, the plan for development will be the same, with The Ottawa Hospital looking to build a 2-million-square-foot building to accommodate regional tertiary care, including cardiac care, neurosciences, vascular care and trauma services. According to Love, the new Civic Campus will have nearly 650 inpatient beds, ambulatory services and a research facility. The Ottawa Hospital was quite selective in searching for a site. Love says the ideal site needed to have at least 60 acres (to be flexible for future expansion) and be easy to access from a transportation standpoint. It also needed to have basic infrastructureÔÇösewer, electric, etc.ÔÇöonsite or close enough for a connection. ÔÇ£It had to be able to handle a new hospital campus,ÔÇØ he says. This new Civic Campus also will be as ÔÇ£greenÔÇØ as possible. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre looking at a LEED Certified building,ÔÇØ Love says, ÔÇ£and a green planning process when we get into the design concepts.ÔÇØOther features of The Ottawa HospitalÔÇÖs new master plan include the relocation and expansion of the rehabilitation center at the General Campus and the development of a maternal/newborn Center as a partnership with the ChildrenÔÇÖs Hospital of Eastern Ontario. ÔÇ£The development of regional centers in partnership with other providers is essential to the success of these programs and services in the future,ÔÇØ Love says.┬áThe Ottawa HospitalÔÇÖs future doesnÔÇÖt rest on capital improvements alone. Technology advancements also are crucial. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre in the process of developing a new IS strategic plan,ÔÇØ Love says. ÔÇ£EMR [electronic medical records] is a key component of this plan.ÔÇØ The hospitalÔÇÖs technology initiatives to date have advanced in this direction, and this new IS strategic plan will develop the framework to complete the electronic records and other clinical tools such as corporate scheduling for the future. ÔÇ£This new strategic plan is a critical component to our operational success in the future,ÔÇØ says Love.ÔÇô Editorial research by Jim Rose┬á