What We Are Funding

Each year the Emergency Department at Guelph General Hospital sees nearly 20,000 more patients than it was designed for. There is little privacy for all patients, and a lack of specialized spaces for patients struggling with mental health or addiction concerns. While our emergency wait times remain amongst the province’s best, they are getting longer every year.

With your help, we are expanding our Emergency Department to shorten wait times and support patient comfort, safety and dignity, create dedicated spaces for mental health and addictions care and ensure caregivers have the best possible equipment.

• Expanded square footage by 60% increasing capacity to reduce wait times and enhance patient privacy and care.
• 14 additional treatment areas, reducing the need to care for patients in hallways.
• Improved patient flow and more efficient patient intake.
• Larger care spaces with walls instead of curtains.
• Improved infection control to reduce risk for other patients, families and hospital staff.
• Relocated mental health and addictions care services with 50% increase in capacity in short-stay unit for patients with these concerns.
• Co-ordinated and timely mental healthcare with co-location of community services, with the aim of reducing and preventing readmissions while ensuring the dignity of all patients.

The equipment used to care for patients is sophisticated and constantly improving as technology evolves. To ensure that we continue to deliver exceptional care, we must invest in innovative technologies that improve patient comfort, as well as enhance speed and accuracy of diagnosis and care so patients can get on the road to wellness as quickly as possible. Advanced equipment also introduces efficiencies that allow hospital staff more time to care for patients and their families.

With your help, we will purchase equipment and technologies to reduce wait times, provide quicker, better and safer diagnosis and treatment, improved outcomes and patient comfort.

• Advanced technology solutions will fundamentally change the delivery of health care with an integrated, connected health strategy designed for efficiency and accuracy.
• New and replacement equipment and systems to help care for patients throughout the Hospital including our Surgical, Intensive Care, Medical and Ambulatory Care Units and Operating Rooms.
• Innovative solutions will save staff time that can be better used for direct patient care.
• Updated equipment will enhance patient comfort and improve outcomes so patients can get back to their daily lives sooner.
• Technology advancements reduce error and improve safety: As an example, a ‘closed loop’ electronic medication management process will confirm that medication and dosage are accurate, administered at the correct time and for the right patient.
• Diagnostic Imaging and lab equipment upgrades will lead to faster, more precise diagnosis, and decrease the need for additional tests.

Each year, 1,700 babies are born at Guelph General Hospital – and as our community grows, so does our number of new births. Already, more than 350 new babies need to spend time in our Special Care Nursery to ensure the best start possible. Essential renovations will make sure we maintain up-to-date standards, and maximum comfort and privacy for babies and their parents.

With your help, we are able to reimagine and expand our Special Care Nursery to support the care and comfort for our most vulnerable newborns and their families, and ensure our Women’s and Children’s programs have the best possible equipment.

• The nursery will have six one-bed patient rooms, one twin patient room and one isolation room totaling 5,600 sq ft, all private with walls rather than curtains as we have now
• Parents will be able to sleep in the new rooms, with their new arrival
• We will build a separate resuscitation room.
• The design will allow improved capacity for growth or high demand periods, more family bonding time in their earliest days together, and better outcomes for babies when families are together and included in their care.
• It will allow more sick babies to remain at Guelph General without having to be transferred to a larger hospital, keeping them near their family and community.
• New equipment with technological advances will lead to improved assessment and monitoring of birth and recovery, reducing risks for mom and baby.