Work is officially complete on the first net new hospital built in Ontario in the past 30 years.

Infrastructure Ontario and Mackenzie Health announced on September 18 that construction of the Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital—formerly the Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital—in Vaughan had reached substantial completion.

When it opens early next year, the 12-million square foot, 11-floor facility will double access to care for the communities of Vaughan, King and Richmond Hill.

“Substantial completion of Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital is a remarkable achievement and a reflection of the incredible work and dedication of our team and partners in moving us toward our two-hospital future,” said Mackenzie Health President and CEO Altaf Stationwala. “Our vision to increase access to safe, quality care for residents across southwest York Region will soon become a reality.”

The new building will be the first smart hospital in Canada, meaning it will feature fully integrated systems and medical devices that can speak directly to one another to maximize information exchange. The building will also include a state-of-the-art emergency department, modern surgical services and operating rooms, and specialized ambulatory clinics and intensive care beds.

The project was no small undertaking. The province invested $1.3 billion in construction. A further $178 million has been raised through a dedicated fundraising campaign.

Construction broke ground in October 2016. The project was delivered by Plenary Health, which included design-builders PCL Constructors Canada, designers Stantec Architecture, and facilities managers Johnson Controls. The project reached substantial completion on August 26.

“On behalf of the Plenary Health team we are thrilled to hand the site over to Mackenzie Health so they can transform this smart building into a hospital,” said Kelly Wallace, vice president and district manager of PCL Constructors Canada. “The passionate pursuit of a shared vision motivated us to overcome any challenge, and I’d like to commend over 1,000 women and men whose commitment to safety enabled us to complete this hospital for the community during a global pandemic, with over three million hours worked without a lost time injury.”

With construction substantially complete, Mackenzie Health teams will begin the enormous task of turning the building into a fully functional hospital so that it can safely open its doors to patients. This includes installing and testing thousands of pieces of equipment, training more than 3,000 staff across both sites, and developing and simulating a number of mock patient scenarios.

“I want to congratulate the team at Mackenzie Health for reaching substantial completion of the new Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital,” said Health Minister Christine Elliott. “This significant milestone means we are another step closer to opening the new state-of-the-art hospital early next year. Once complete, the hospital will directly help build more capacity in the health care system, shorten wait times and end hallway health care across York Region.”