CHEO integrated treatment centre gets funding nod from province
The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) is making significant progress on getting its integrated 1Door4Care facility built.
In late November, the hospital announced plans for the building, which will see a single facility created on the main campus on Smyth Road in Ottawa, and in which several previously disparate services will be integrated. The idea behind the facility is for kids with complex-care needs to visit a single destination for critical treatment and rehabilitation services such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language pathology, and autism services.
For children with multiple or complex special needs, 1Door4Care will bring together teams of professionals under one roof to support children with special needs through a coordinated plan of care. CHEO currently provides these services in eight locations across the region, which can make it difficult for families and providers to coordinate services and to support children and youth as they grow into adulthood.
“We are delivering on our promise to support children and youth with special needs by ensuring that we are building the necessary infrastructure to support expanding services,” said Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. “CHEO’s 1Door4Care is an excellent example of an innovative, modern service delivery model that will support children and their families and aligns with our vision that puts the well-being of individuals at the centre of our decision-making.”
CHEO chief executive Alex Munter said that, for families, the COVID-19 pandemic has only deepened the challenges associated with caring for vulnerable children and youth.
“Children and youth with special needs, medical complexities and mental health challenges have deserved better, faster access to care for a long time,” he said in a statement announcing the new facility. “This new building is going to bring care teams, family supports and technology under one roof so 40,000 kids and their families get the care they need – when, where and how they need it.”
On the same day, the Ontario government announced it would provide funding to the project. The precise financial commitment isn’t yet known, and won’t be until the project moves much further along in the design phase, but the money for 1Door4Care will come via the province’s 2021 budget commitments and an additional $240 million recently announced to reduce wait times and improve the health system’s capacity to serve kids with special needs.
The new single site at CEO will not only help reduce wait times for services so more children and youth can receive services on an annual basis, but it will also address capacity issues so there is more space available for service delivery. CHEO sees more than 500,000 visits annually, while its Children’s Treatment Centre serves more than 6,400 children and youth each year.
The new Integrated Treatment Centre is projected to serve approximately 40,000 children and youth.
The latest P3 Market Update document issued by Infrastructure Ontario earlier this fall estimates the cost of the 1Door4Care facility to be in the range of $200 million to $499 million. IO expects to issue an RFQ for the work this winter, with an RFP issued the following fall, and contract execution sometime in 2023.
The province’s investment in the construction of the new building for the Children’s Treatment Centre at CHEO is in addition to significant investments supporting the construction of new facilities at Grandview Children's Centre in Ajax, and the relocation of Health Sciences North Children's Treatment Centre in Sudbury.