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St. Michael's Hospital (Toronto)

Coordinates: 43°39′12″N 79°22′39″W / 43.6532°N 79.3775°W / 43.6532; -79.3775
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St. Michael's Hospital
Unity Health Toronto
St. Michael's, Queen Street entrance
St. Michael's Hospital (Toronto) is located in Toronto
St. Michael's Hospital (Toronto)
Location in Toronto
Geography
Location30 Bond Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5B 1W8
Coordinates43°39′12″N 79°22′39″W / 43.6532°N 79.3775°W / 43.6532; -79.3775
Organisation
Care systemMedicare
TypeTeaching
Affiliated universityUniversity of Toronto Faculty of Medicine
Services
Emergency departmentLevel I Trauma Centre
Beds463
HelipadTC LID: CTM4
History
Opened1892
Links
Websitewww.stmichaelshospital.com

St. Michael's Hospital is a teaching hospital and medical centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1892 with the founding goal of taking care of the sick and the poor of Toronto's inner city.[1] The hospital provides tertiary and quaternary services in cardiovascular surgery, neurosurgery, inner city health, and therapeutic endoscopy. It is one of two Level 1 adult trauma centres in Greater Toronto, along with the larger Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. As trauma centres, both St. Michael's and Sunnybrook are equipped with helipads. It is one of several teaching hospitals of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and is part of the Unity Health Toronto hospital network.

Overview

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The hospital is located near the intersection of Queen Street West and Yonge Street, in Downtown Toronto's Garden District. The hospital serves a diverse population, which includes the affluent condominium complexes in Harbourfront, the underprivileged of the inner city of Regent Park, and the gay and lesbian community in Church and Wellesley.[citation needed] The hospital has 463 inpatient beds and extensive outpatient clinics.[2]

The physician-in-chief is Sharon Straus,[3] the surgeon-in-chief is Najma Ahmed, the vice-president of research and innovation is Ori Rotstein,[4] and the president and CEO is Tim Rutledge.[5] The hospital also has a large team of volunteers. The hospital absorbed the Wellesley endoscopy group after the closure of Wellesley Hospital.

Documentary filmmaker Katerina Cizek teamed up with frontline health care workers at the hospital in the National Film Board of Canada's filmmaker-in-residence[6] project, which received the 2008 Webby Award for the best online documentary series.[7]

In October 2008, St. Michael's was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.[8] The hospital was also named one of the Best Employers for New Canadians for six consecutive years, from 2008 to 2013.[9][10]

History

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Art Deco Bond Street entrance

St. Michael's Hospital was founded as a Catholic hospital in 1892 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, who operated the Notre Dame des Anges, a boarding house for working women. Originally an old Baptist church, the hospital on Bond Street was created in response to care for the poor population in the south end of Toronto.[11]

The hospital opened with a bed capacity of 26 and a staff of six doctors and four graduate nurses. Within a year, it was expanded to include two large wards and an emergency department.

In 1894, Toronto-based railway magnate Hugh Ryan funded a major extension of the hospital —building a three-storey surgical wing that included an operating theatre designed to accommodate fifty medical students and ten wards each containing ten beds.[12][13] These additions, which cost $40,000 (the equivalent of $1.48 million in 2024), placed the hospital on the path to becoming the preeminent teaching hospital it is today.[14]

As early as 1895, St. Michael's Hospital started receiving medical students. It negotiated a formal agreement with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto in 1920 that has continued to this day.

By 1912, the hospital's bed capacity had reached 300, and a five-room operating suite was added. The ongoing physical expansion, most prominently in the 1960s, increased the original 26-bed facility to 900 beds.

Between 1892 and 1974, St. Michael's school of nursing graduated 81 classes, totalling 5,177 graduates. The school was closed in 1974, when nursing education was moved into the province's community college system. Thereafter, the hospital opened a school for medical record librarians, the first in Canada, and participated in the preparation of dietitians and X-ray and laboratory technologists.

In March 2010, the hospital re-branded itself to simply St. Michael's to reflect its growing movement into medical research. Meanwhile, a new motto ("Inspired Care. Inspiring Science.") was also revealed.[15]

On 1 August 2017, St. Michael's Hospital merged with St. Joseph's Health Centre and Providence Healthcare to form a new hospital network[16] known as Unity Health Toronto.

Construction

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Glass bridge in the hospital

St. Michael's is undergoing major renovations most notably on the northeast corner (Shuter wing). The 17-storey Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower was recently completed in 2020. Construction began in April 2015. This 250,000-square-foot addition boasts a new main entrance and an emergency department nearly twice the size of the prior one. It was expected to cost around CA$301 million.[17]

Services

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The hospital is also home to the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, with a state-of-the-art building, opened on October 18, 2011.[20][21] The Knowledge Institute aims to bring together the areas of research and education to bring advances to patient care sooner. It is also the home of the Toronto Platelet Immunobiology Group, a group of scientists and physicians that perform research in platelet and bleeding disorders.

St. Michael's is one of a few GTA hospitals with helicopter landing facilities and one of two in downtown Toronto (the other is at the Hospital for Sick Children). The helipad (TC LID: CTM4)[22] is located on the roof of the main hospital wing in the north end at Shuter Street and Victoria Street.

References

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  1. ^ McDonald, Irene (1992). For the Least of My Brethren. Dundurn Press. ISBN 1-55002-182-6.
  2. ^ "Unity Health Toronto".
  3. ^ Dr. Sharon Straus
  4. ^ Ori D. Rotstein
  5. ^ Executive Team
  6. ^ Filmmaker-in-Residence
  7. ^ NFB Filmmaker In Residence Archived 2009-09-16 at the Wayback Machine Webby Award Winner
  8. ^ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 Greater Toronto's Top Employers Competition".
  9. ^ St. Michael's Hospital named one of 40 Best Employers for New Canadians
  10. ^ St. Michael's Working Here page
  11. ^ The St. Michael's Story
  12. ^ McDonald, C.S.J., Irene (1992). For the Least of My Brethren: A Centenary History of St Michael's Hospital (PDF). Toronto, Canada: Toronto and Oxford Dundurn Press. pp. 30–114. ISBN 1-55002-181-8.
  13. ^ Ottawa Daily Citizen (21 November 1895). "Mr Ryan's Gift: Opening of the New Wing at St Michael's Hospital". Ottawa Daily Citizen. p. 2.
  14. ^ "Hugh Ryan, Obituary". The Ottawa Journal. 13 February 1899. p. 1.
  15. ^ "St. Michael's no longer "just a hospital"". Toronto Star. March 22, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  16. ^ Adler, Mike (25 April 2017). "Providence Healthcare, St. Joseph's and St. Michael's planning merger". Toronto, ON: toronto.com. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
  17. ^ "Unity Health Toronto".
  18. ^ "Chiropody Clinic". Retrieved March 26, 2019.
  19. ^ Hospital Staff. "Support / Professional Services". St. Michael's Hospital. Retrieved 2013-12-31.
  20. ^ "A New Model in Health Care". St. Michael's Hospital. 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2011.
  21. ^ "Opening of world-class research and education institute at St. Michael's Hospital promotes the discovery, sharing and application of knowledge". St. Michael's Hospital. 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  22. ^ Canada Flight Supplement. Effective 0901Z 16 July 2020 to 0901Z 10 September 2020.
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