January 27, 2023 · 0 Comments
By Brian Lockhart
Stevenson Memorial Hospital (SMH) has announced that Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning, a Toronto-based full-service planning and design firm, has been awarded the contract to design Phase 1 of the hospital’s redevelopment project.
With offices across Canada, Kasian has partnered nationally with clients to deliver over 200 healthcare projects across the country.
Some of their projects include the redevelopment of Quinte Health Care, Belleville General Hospital, the design of the expansion and renovation of the emergency department, Fracture Clinic, Cardiac Diagnostic and Arrhythmia Clinic, and the Centenary Health site at Scarborough Health Network, the design and construction of the new Stanton General Hospital in Yellowknife, the new South Health Campus Hospital in Calgary, and the Clinical Patient Tower at The Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops B.C.
SMH will proceed with Kasian to design the expansion and implement a build-finance construction model. SMH will be supported by the Ministry of Health and Infrastructure Ontario as the work progresses.
“We are looking forward to working with Kasian to help bring our vision of a redeveloped hospital for our community to life,” said Jody Levac, president and CEO of SMH. “Their work will be critical in this next design phase, which is Stage 3 of the Ministry of Health’s redevelopment process. Kasian’s work in designing and planning hospital redevelopments leaves us confident that we will have the hospital that we need and deserve.
SMH’s current 58-year-old facility was built to manage 7,000 emergency department visits per year, but now sees almost 40,000 annually. With residential development that continues in New Tecumseth and the South Simcoe region, the population has grown significantly.
SMH has not undergone redevelopment since the hospital’s inception in 1964.
“At Kasian, we believe there is one primary reason to design a new hospital: to improve patient and community outcomes,” said Ian Sinclair, principal-in-charge and operations integration advisor at Kasian. “The key to achieving this, we believe, is not by simply offering answers, but by having the wisdom and good judgment to ask better questions. This means we are committed unlike anyone else, to bring patients, their families, and staff to the planning table so the building is co-designed by, and for those it is intended to serve.”
Phase 1 of the SMH redevelopment project will feature a wrap-around expansion of the current hospital, doubling the square footage of the current hospital.
The emergency department will triple in size, featuring a separate entrance and increased covered ambulance bays.
In-patient beds will increase by 20 per cent with a majority being isolation rooms, following best practices in infection prevention and control.
The surgical suite, birthing unit, pharmacy, laboratory, and diagnostic imaging units will all be expanded.
The repurposing and revitalization of the hospital’s current building will become Phase 2 of the project.