Cambridge Memorial Hospital

[UrbanWaterloo]

Cambridge Memorial Hospital
700 Coronation Boulevard, Cambridge
www.cmh.org

http://www.cmh.org/new_images/main_logo.gif

Cambridge Memorial Hospital, more than 1,200 dedicated and skilled health care professionals, technicians and staff provide excellent care to residents of Cambridge, the township of North Dumfries and the Region of Waterloo.

Our History: http://www.cmh.org/your_hospital.php?pid=59

Cambridge Memorial Hospital traces its roots to 1888, when the region’s first community hospital, known as Galt Hospital, opened its doors to treat patients in a localized health care setting.
http://www.cmh.org/images/yourHospital/1880sB.jpg

Sixty-five years later, in 1953, a facility was built in its present location which was better suited to serve the major communities of Galt, Hespeler, Preston and the Township of North Dumfries. The hospital was named South Waterloo Memorial Hospital, in honour of those who gave their lives for the community and country. As local boundaries changed and communities merged to become the City of Cambridge, the hospital adopted the new name of Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
http://www.cmh.org/images/yourHospital/1969.jpg

Facts & Figures: http://www.cmh.org/your_hospital.php
Cambridge Memorial Hospital serves the residents of Cambridge, North Dumfries, Deer Ridge and Doon.
Our Vital Statistics for 2008-2009 are:

Patient Days 57,824
Diagnostic Procedures 88,866
Outpatient Visits 73,165
Emergency Department Visits 46,079
Surgical Cases 12,185
Breast Screenings 3,044
Births 1,476
Cataract Surgeries 1,328
Hip/Knee Replacements 395
Employees 1,178
Medical Staff 283
Volunteers 401

Annual Report 2008-2009: http://www.cmh.org/documents/yourHospital/AR2009.pdf

Revenue $107,186,000
Expenses $110,103,000
Year end deficit $2,917,000

[RangersFan]

Cambridge Memorial Hospital expansion remains stalled
By Kevin Swayze, Record staff | http://www.cambridgereporter.com/news/article/201385


CAMBRIDGE — Expansion of Cambridge Memorial Hospital has shrunk again.

In 1999, the Conservative government was talking about 98 new beds, expanded outpatient, psychiatric and emergency wards

Now, after decade of financial and leadership turmoil, it looks like Cambridge Memorial might end up with 198 beds in total – about the same the day its expansion was proposed by the Tory health services restructuring commission.

Negotiations with the Health Ministry resumed in November, after the hospital budget-balancing plan was approved. It called for elimination of 85 jobs as part of erasing an illegal $5.6 million deficit projected for the fiscal year ending March 2010. In all, $11 million must be trimmed by March 2011, to produce a balanced budget.

The “hospital improvement plan” also eliminates 35 beds now mostly used for patients awaiting transfer to long-term care facilities. The hospital redevelopment plan still calls for 25 new secure mental-health beds – which the hospital doesn’t have now – and 31 rehabilitation beds, bringing total bed count is up to 198 when work is done.

Acting hospital president Patrick Gaskin said the budget had to be balanced and the hospitals long-range plans updated before any construction could start. The addition is planned in the parking lot beside the emergency ward.

“Now we have the clarity. We’ve taken a step backward to move forward,” Gaskin said after Wednesday’s hospital board meeting.

Architects have started to rework the plans. Gaskin hopes to have them ready for provincial review by May. Then it’s up to the government to approve the project.

The Waterloo-Wellington Local Health Integration Network – which doles out health dollars locally – endorsed the new Cambridge concept in December. To push it forward, the province has been asked for $10 million for a “planning grant” for upfront costs, Gaskin said.

Tuesday in Kitchener, Premier Dalton McGuinty was non-committal about the Cambridge hospital expansion. The province has many hospital projects across the province to worry about, at the same time Queen’s Park faces a fiscal crunch in the poor economy, he said.

Chuck Phillips was appointed the new hospital board chair by provincial supervisor Murray Martin. Martin said he’s hoping to finish his work by May and give control back to the volunteer board.

Phillips said he’s ready to go to bat for Cambridge expansion, but not before the hospital’s finances are in order. Unlike past board chair John Bell, Phillips isn’t adverse to working with the health network and other hospitals to co-ordinate care. Bell repeatedly expressed reservations that centralized hospital services would only come at the expense of Cambridge Memorial – the smallest of the four big hospitals in Waterloo-Wellington.

Phillips was on the board with Bell. Phillips praised the work it did before Martin was ordered in and Bell quit in September. Now, however, “we’re just going to move forward, playing the cards we were dealt.”

There won’t be much new money for health care as the province faces a big deficit, Phillips said. That means co-operation with the health network and other hospitals to make the best use of what money there is.

“This is about making sure this community needs are looked after, but demonstrating to them a willingness to work with them,” Phillips said.

Plans to reconstruct and expand Cambridge Memorial have followed a rocky road.

In 1999, plans were unveiled for a $79 million expansion. The plan was to raze A-block – the original hospital building built in 1952 parallel to Coronation Boulevard – after constructing a “river wing” behind it.

In 2003, the project had settled into a $58.2 million, 98-bed replacement for A-block. The Conservative government in Queen’s Park Promised $38.6 million to the project, with the rest raised locally – including $6.3 million from Cambridge city council.

The project was expected to be completed in 2005. Instead, the provincial Liberal government sent the project back to the drawing board in September 2005. Since then, there’s been millions spend by the Liberal government to fix a leaky roof and install new boilers.

The project was reworked and approved by the Liberal government in summer 2007, as a $39 million first phase project entirely covered by local money. The province was to chip in towards the rest of the $100 million rebuilding in future years. It would have expanded Cambridge Memorial to 194 beds, from the 180 it had in 2007. The province approved $2 million in site preparation work. The first phase was supposed to be open in 2010.

Instead, negotiations over the project continued as the project was reworked, to boost the hospital’s total beds to 244. Now, talks with the province put the final bed count at 198.

[RangersFan]

this is a small pdf that includes some facts and figures about the hospitals development which also includes a building render. I am not sure how outdated this information is in comparison to the article above. http://www.cmh.org/documents/yourHospital/fact_sheet_june26.pdf

[Urbanomicon]

Cambridge hospital expansion needs provincial OK — again
February 25, 2010
By Kevin Swayze, Record staff
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/675984


CAMBRIDGE — Odds are good you’ll get a private room when you’re admitted to the revamped Cambridge Memorial Hospital — but first the province must OK the $100 million project.
The expansion has been reworked — again — to match up with recent service changes and bed closures imposed by a provincial supervisor to erase a $5.6 million budget deficit.

The hospital board heard an update Wednesday on the long-talked-about overhaul of the Coronation Boulevard landmark. A 98-bed expansion was first suggested in 1999, but management turmoil and changes in provincial governments kept delaying the project.

Now, a 77-bed expansion is on track for provincial approval by summer, the board heard. The goal is to get the project added to the Liberal government’s next five-year capital spending plan expected to be announced this year.

“I would like this actually built before I actually need it,” said board member Don Pavey.
Project manager Angelo Presta offered no promises as to when provincial approval might come, but said talks are going well with provincial officials to rework a $120 million plan approved in 2007.

Once staff and the doctors using the hospital get a chance to review the most recent sketches, Presta expects to present them to the health ministry for approval by the end of March. Provincial officials promised to review them within two months, he said

In 2007, the health ministry gave the go-ahead for a two-phase revamp with a cost of $120 million. Only the first, $39 million phase was to start immediately, with construction costs covered by local fundraising and the rest of the job funded by the province some time future.

Now, there’s a “50-50 chance” the province will consider an all-at-once plan, to do everything at once — potentially saving 20 per cent in costs, Presta said.

And there’s also a chance such a big project would be put up for a designed, built and financed by a developer, with the province paying off the project over 30 years.

All that’s been spent on reconstruction so far is $2.5 million for site preparation in 2008 and 2009, including new water and electrical services and a rerouted main driveway. Presta said none of that money will be wasted after construction plans changed.

Since 2007, hospital construction rules have changed and Cambridge has trimmed some services to balance its books.

After the most recent “hospital improvement plan” Cambridge Memorial will have 120 beds, down from 155 last summer. If the hospital expansion unfolds as expected, the number would jump to 197 by 2015 — with long-range plans to add another 30 beds soon after.

Eliminating 85 positions at the same time as planning to expand “seems like a great waste of resources and severance costs,” Pavey said.

The short-range staffing plan actually fits well into long-term growth, said acting hospital president Patrick Gaskin. Without a balanced budget now, the province won’t give money for expansion, he said.
The new Cambridge Memorial concept looks externally similar to the 2007 version, with a new, four-floor building constructed perpendicular to Coronation Boulevard, in what’s now the emergency department parking lot. The original A-block, B-block added in the 1970s, and the Bailey Wellness centre from the 1980s.

Changes were also driven by new hospital construction standards to control infection and give handicapped accessibility to all areas, Presta said. That means 80 per cent of the new rooms will have only single bed and an individual washroom. That means a new single room takes up as much space as a double room does today, Presta said.

In the existing hospital — parts of which are 60 years old — 30 per cent of rooms are singles. Half are doubles and the rest four-bed wards with single washrooms.

The new plan also moved a new 25-bed secure mental health about of the new building, into new, two-storey building overlooking the Grand River the segregates patients from the general public.

There’s also a 200-spot parking garage penciled in along the boundary with the Galt Country Club. If built, it would bring the total number of hospital parking spots to 1,000.

[Urbanomicon]

Hospital unveils revised master plan
Lisa Rutledge, Times Staff
Feb 25, 2010 - 5:20 PM
http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news/local/article/624146--hospital-unveils-revised-master-plan


Cambridge Memorial Hospital’s $100-million expansion may be better positioned than ever to win the government approval that has been elusive for so long, say project planners.

Despite countless delays, disagreements with local health governing bodies and battles over budget deficits, pieces are finally falling into place to get the go-ahead to begin construction, says officials.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work to get it to where the ministry wants it,” explained Angelo Presta, director of project management.

He said the budget is on track to get back in the black and there’s better communication with the government, as well as with the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network.
That communication “hasn’t been stronger than it is now,” he said.

Offering reminders that no construction plan for the expansion project has ever been approved, Presta said the push is now on. He launched the first stage of that process at a hospital board meeting Wednesday, unveiling a revised master plan before sending it to the province at the end of March.
While optimistic the government will include Cambridge’s plans in the next round of announcements, Presta knows there are still many hoops to leap through. There are at least five or six steps that need to happen before receiving approval.

“We’re at step one and two.”

Some modifications in the revised plan include an increase in the number of private rooms to meet new health care standards. Eighty-per cent of hospital rooms will be private to better control infections and increase patient accessibility to washrooms.
The original plan included 244 beds, however, the new project only calls for 197. That’s in part because the health integration network’s goals aim to take pressure off hospitals housing complex continuing care patients. Those beds will move off-site to other health care centres, including St. Joseph’s and Freeport health care facilities.

It’s a shift right across Ontario, said Presta.

“The whole industry is providing more care with less beds.”

Changes will also see a 25-bed mental health services facility become a standalone but linked wing.

While hesitating to project an earliest completion date for the expansion, Presta did say that if the approval process advances without any snags, the project would take at least three years to complete.

He doesn’t anticipate construction costs will be higher due to past delays, maintaining that a soft economy could spark a bid competition.

[UrbanWaterloo]

Cambridge Town Hall Meeting to Address Service Cuts at Local Hospital
TORONTO, Feb. 19 /CNW/
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/February2010/19/c3229.html

What: The Cambridge Health Coalition is holding an information meeting on the budget deficit that will result in service cuts at Cambridge Memorial Hospital. The public is invited to join the community information session to hear about what is happening with hospital funding, and plans and issues affecting the local hospital. This meeting is also a strategy session on how to protect hospital services.
When: Sunday February 28th, 1pm
Where: Cambridge Newfoundland Club 1500 Dunbar Road West
Who: Speaking at the Meeting
Waterloo Regional Health Coalition Chair-Orville Thacker
Ontario Health Coalition Director-Natalie Mehra
ONA Nursing President-Brenda Pugh
Jim Shuttleworth-Stroke Recovery Group
Kristen Eaton-Chair of the Cambridge Community Breastfeeding Group

For further information: cambridgehealthcoalition@gmail.com or Natalie Mehra, (416) 441-2502 or (416) 230-6402, ohc@sympatico.ca

Related Link: www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca

[UrbanWaterloo]

WWLHIN Continues to Invest in Cambridge Memorial Hospital
Community Hospital will Expand In-Patient Rehabilitation Program
March 12, 2010 - http://www.wwlhin.on.ca/Newsroom.aspx

CAMBRIDGE, ON - The Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network (WWLHIN) announced today an important initiative that ensures Cambridge Memorial Hospital (CMH) will continue to play a leadership role in Waterloo Wellington’s health care system.

The WWLHIN will provide $1.37 million in base funding to CMH to support the expansion of the hospital’s in-patient rehabilitation program. The provision of expanded in-patient rehabilitation services at CMH is aligned with the proposed project to redevelop the existing building. As part of a new model of care outlined in CMH’s Revised Hospital Improvement Plan (R-HIP) and approved by the WWLHIN, Cambridge Memorial Hospital will be enhancing its in-patient rehabilitation/oncology/palliative service by creating a combined 31-bed unit and moving to a new location on the 3rd Floor. Rehabilitation services help people regain function, mobility and independence after illness or an injury. The funding will support the hospital staff and doctors as they continue to provide high-quality care for their patients.

To further enhance the delivery of rehabilitation services in Waterloo Wellington, the WWLHIN is implementing a rehabilitation review in partnership with local health service providers. The purpose of the review is to identify strategies and opportunities to further integrate and coordinate the delivery of the WWLHIN-wide program. As part of the review, the WWLHIN Rehab Review Committee will look at current care delivery, patient outcomes and leading practices to create a model of care for rehabilitation services.

QUOTES

“The ongoing collaboration between the WWLHIN and Cambridge Memorial Hospital has identified this opportunity for the hospital to further develop its high-quality in-patient rehabilitation program,” said Sandra Hanmer, CEO, WWLHIN. “We are thrilled that Cambridge Memorial Hospital physicians and staff will be working with other system partners to offer high-quality rehabilitation services in our area.”

She added that the WWLHIN-wide review of rehabilitation services supports long-term planning for a sustainable and integrated rehabilitation program for local residents.

Murray Martin, the Supervisor appointed by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care last September to oversee operations at Cambridge Memorial Hospital, applauds the funding announcement at a time when CMH is positioning itself for opportunities that go beyond the Cambridge boundaries.

“Cambridge Memorial Hospital is perfectly suited within the system to deliver expanded in-patient rehabilitation services for the residents of Cambridge and those living in Waterloo Wellington,” Martin said.

CMH Interim Chief of Staff Dr. Michael Lawrie agrees. “In-patient rehabilitation services have a tremendous impact on the successful outcomes of patients recovering from such things as surgeries and strokes. Expanding that role at CMH is great news for patients here but also for those living in the Waterloo Wellington LHIN area who will see additional resources channeled into a much-needed program.”

[Urbanomicon]

Rehabilitation services expand at Cambridge Memorial Hospital
March 13, 2010
By Kevin Swayze, Record staff
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/683308


CAMBRIDGE – After years of service cuts, 10 new beds will open by fall at Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
And the hospital has submitted a proposal to open another 20 temporary beds in a vacant fifth floor ward, operated in partnership with a nursing home company. A decision about that plan is expected by the end of April.

Friday, hospital and local health integration network officials announced a $1.37 million plan to expand the cancer-palliative care ward by 10 beds to 31 beds on the third floor.

The combined “inpatient rehabilitation” ward is a byproduct of a recent restructuring of the hospital’s finances and services that saw 35 beds cut and 85 jobs eliminated. It was part of a plan to shave $11 million over two years to balance the budget.

The new beds require hiring of a dozen or so nurses, occupational therapists and support staff.
Before Friday’s announcement, the hospital’s bed count was 120. It’s now 130. There were 180 beds in 1999.

The health network also announced Friday a review of rehabilitation services across Waterloo Region and Wellington County. The review of is expected to take more than a year to complete. Included in that process are outpatient programs for stroke patients, a long-requested program in Cambridge.

For Cambridge MPP Gerry Martiniuk, the return of rehabilitation services is critical for the hospital’s future. The Conservative railed against the Liberal government for not giving the hospital enough money in 2004 to keep outpatient programs open in the Bailey Wellness Centre.

“Fourteen years: what a roller coaster this hospital has been (on) since I was elected,” Martiniuk said.

“It’s really great to see the recognition this hospital is back on it feet and the program is a necessary program if this hospital is to serve the residents of Cambridge.”

Combining rehabilitation services with cancer treatment and end-of-life care creates “synergies” to help patients recover more quickly recover from injury or surgery and return home, said acting chief of staff Dr. Michael Lawrie.

The additional money for Cambridge Memorial sends an important message of faith in the hospital’s future, said Lawrie and other health officials.

“I think this is seen by doctors as moving forward in preparing for the capital project . . . seeing that start to happen is absolutely huge,” Lawrie said.

Redevelopment of Cambridge Memorial has been promised for a decade, but management turmoil, budget problems and changes in provincial governments stalled the project.

The most recent incarnation proposes a new building in the emergency parking lot and a secure mental health centre along the Grand River. The $100 million proposal goes to the Health Ministry for review in April.

After the press conference, health officials confirmed Cambridge Memorial was bidding to operate temporary nursing home beds, in partnership with a nursing home company. The idea has been suggested for months by provincial supervisor Murray Martin, but now there’s an application for operating funds.

Hospitals across Waterloo-Wellington struggle with “alternative level of care” patients – Cambridge Memorial especially. Sometimes referred to as “bed blockers,” they’re patients who don’t need to stay in hospital but aren’t well enough to go home. They should be in nursing homes, but there’s a shortage of long-term care beds across the area.

As new nursing home beds are built, the health network has funded “transitional beds” to in an attempt to ease the bed crunch in hospitals. In 2009-2010, there were 57 beds. For 2010-2011, there’s money for 77.

Cambridge Memorial wants some of the money to run a nursing home in a hospital, until a 96-bed addition at Hilltop Manor nursing home in Cambridge is completed by the end of 2012.

Cambridge often has half of its beds filled with patients who should be in nursing homes. That prevents critically ill patents from being admitted for days until a bed opens up.

“Sometimes we have patients stacked up in emergency . . . 10 to 18 additional people backed up in emergency,” Dr. Lawrie said.

[Urbanomicon]

Cambridge hospital gets money to cut jobs and plan for expansion
March 25, 2010 | Kevin Swayze, Record Staff | Link (http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/688412)


CAMBRIDGE — About $11 million in provincial money is flowing into cash-strapped Cambridge Memorial Hospital, to help cover costs of cutting staff and preparing for a $100 million expansion.

The hospital asked for a $10 million grant to prepare concept plans and hire architects to ready a new expansion proposal. It includes a new, multistorey building in today’s emergency ward parking lot and a secure mental health building along the Grand River.

About $3 million is expected to be in the hospital’s bank account in early April, with the rest promised as the 77-bed project is finalized and reviewed by the Health Ministry in May and June.

Last week, the ministry gave another $1 million with no strings attached, said Murray Martin, the provincial supervisor appointed in September to oversee cutting $11 million from the hospital budget by March 2011.

He told Wednesday’s hospital board meeting that the cash will be used to cover severance and buyout costs as 85 jobs are eliminated and 35 beds closed to balance the budget by spring 2011.

“It’s a nice boost,” said hospital chair Chuck Phillips. “It isn’t an easy process were going through with the (cost cutting) and its good to get the vote of support.”

Some of the money will also be used to cover the severance costs of former hospital president Julia Dumanian, Martin said. She was terminated without cause shortly after he was appointed.

Martin hinted that details of her termination payout will be released by March 31. That’s the day provincial law requires release of all public sector salaries of more than $100,000 from the preceding year. Dumanian’s salary in 2008 was $377,925.

A 98-bed expansion of Cambridge Memorial was first proposed in 1999. About $10 million was provided shortly afterward for interior structural work in advance of the project, which never was approved by the Conservative government.

Another $25 million was allocated in 1998 for site preparation work for a second $120 million incarnation of the expansion project under a Liberal government. Money was spent on rerouting the main driveway and upgrading utility connections.

The project was sent back to square one again last year, as Cambridge Memorial staggered under an illegal $5.6 million budget deficit and the province took over management.

The $10 million now promised is the first provincial money to directly help Cambridge Memorial prepare plans for expansion, said project manager Angelo Presta.

Martin expects the province will announce its 10-year capital construction program — and Cambridge’s project timing — soon after today’s provincial budget.

“I’m certain we will be in it, but it’s where you are in it. Ten years is a long time span to be in a spending plan,” he said.

As the hospital awaits approval to expand, money is being spent on the current Coronation Boulevard building. Three weeks ago, 10 rehabilitation beds were approved for the hospital, as part of a new palliative-cancer-rehabilitation ward on the third floor. The hospital gets another $1.37 million a year to run the new ward.

The hospital bed count will climb back to 130 when the new ward opens in May. There were 180 beds in the hospital in 1999.

And another $50,000 is being spent to prepare part of the empty fifth floor to become a temporary nursing home. The hospital has about 60 patients in hospital most days who should be in a nursing home. The “alternative level of care” patients block admission of others, who sometimes wait on gurneys in the emergency ward for days.

A 96-bed expansion of Hilltop Manor nursing home in Cambridge is expected to ease the hospital bed crunch, but it won’t be open until the end of 2012.

The temporary 33-bed hospital nursing home would be run by a private contractor, if the Waterloo-
Wellington Health Integration Network allocates funding as expected in May.

“They have indicated we should be optimistic,” Martin said.

[Urbanomicon]

Hospital to install new generator this weekend
April 8, 2010 | Record Staff | Link (http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/695680)


CAMBRIDGE — Visitors to Cambridge Memorial Hospital needn’t worry about power outages through the day Saturday. The hospital is plugging in a million-dollar secondary generator, replacing a model that was installed in 1976. The older unit will back up the new one. Each outage will be announced beforehand, essential gear and emergency lighting will continue to work, and the hospital routine will carry on much as usual. The hospital’s gift shop and Tim Hortons outlet will maintain regular service.

[RangersFan]

Cambridge Memorial expansion OK may come in spring 2011, hospital supervisor says
June 25, 2010 | Kevin Swayze, Record Staff


CAMBRIDGE — Provincial supervisor Murray Martin is confident Cambridge Memorial Hospital is now in healthy financial shape and ready for the future.

He’s also confident Cambridge will get good news in spring 2011 about the long-promised hospital expansion — even though he doubts that’s the future of health care.

With the provincial budgets tightening and the population aging, more home and outpatient care is the only way to affordably face fiscal reality and maintain publicly funded health care.

“There has to be more infrastructure put into the communities, so that more services can be delivered supporting people at home, or in ambulatory settings,” said Martin, president of Hamilton Health Sciences.

“It isn’t at all about building more hospital beds ... you can’t keep institutionalizing everyone. You can’t afford that. It has to be done on a more cost effective basis.”

Martin was sent to Cambridge to balance the hospital’s books in September by the provincial health minister, after a review found governance problems and a growing budget deficit. Hospital president Julia Dumanian was terminated. Hospital board chair John Bell quit, followed soon after by vice chair Dennis Watson.

To erase a projected two-year, $11 million deficit, Martin prescribed some bitter medicine: eliminate 85 jobs and 35 beds. The hospital registered a small deficit for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011. It’s expected to show a small surplus by March 31, 2011.

Martin has now given control of the hospital back to the hospital board, even though he’s technically in charge until the health minister relieves him of the duty. That won’t happen until after he files his final supervisor’s report in a week or so, and it’s considered by the provincial cabinet.

Health care now consumes 47 per cent of the provincial budget — and is growing at five per cent a year, Martin said.

“I think it’s understood health care cannot consume the entire provincial budget. The rate of health care growth must be reduced,” he said.

“Cambridge will be in the same boat as everyone else … it still is a major challenge for the health system to try to contain costs to what the public can afford.”

People are going to have to start paying for non essential medical services, like ultrasound tests to determine the sex of a baby, Martin said.

“You have to look at what services contribute to better health cares, as opposed to nice-to-have things.”

The province deserves credit for helping Cambridge Memorial out of its financial crisis, Martin said. A $1 million restructuring grant was provided, of which $650,000 will cover Dumanian’s severance package.

The Health Ministry is also giving money for detailed plans and preparations for a $100 million rebuilding and expansion. It includes a building on the current emergency ward parking lot and a new mental health building over the river.

“The fact the government has invested $10 million to do all the planning is a strong indication of their support for the project,” Martin said.

The board has picked Cambridge family physician Michael Lawrie as chief of staff, after his having serving in the interim position for more than a year.

A process is also underway to pick a new hospital president, Martin said. Today, Patrick Gaskin is the acting president, who Murray praised for his leadership as hospital staff worked together to balance the budget while maintaining good patient care.

Martin also praised the hospital board, assuring Cambridge residents it’s ready for the challenges ahead.

“They can be very optimistic about the future the hospital. It’s in very good hands. They’ve dealt with the financial issues. I think they’re very well positioned.”

[UrbanWaterloo]

New MRI Will Reduce Wait Times In Cambridge Area
McGuinty Government Improving Access To Diagnostic Scans
January 13, 2011 | PDF (http://www.cmh.org/documents/cmhnews/MRI_at_CMH_media_release.pdf)

Cambridge-area patients will soon have increased access to diagnostic scans and benefit from reduced wait times with a new MRI machine at Cambridge Memorial Hospital – a first for this hospital.
The new MRI machine is expected to provide patients with 3,120 scans every year and once up and running will operate for 40 hours a week. This MRI machine will make it easier for people who need an MRI scan to get tested and treated more quickly, closer to home.
Today's announcement is part of the government's Open Ontario Plan to provide more access to health care services while improving quality and accountability for patients.

QUOTES

“This new MRI is wonderful news for Cambridge residents. It means patients will not only have more access to this much needed service, but also they’ll also live with greater peace of mind knowing that the quality health care they need is close by.”
-- Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care

“The announcement of a new MRI for our hospital will increase our capacity to deliver acute health care services for our patients.”
-- Patrick Gaskin, President and CEO, Cambridge Memorial Hospital

“This new MRI will improve access, which was identified as a priority by our community and is included in our local health service plan. It means that patients in the Waterloo Wellington LHIN will receive a faster diagnosis of an ailment, which will lead to faster treatment, close to home."
-- Bruce Lauckner, CEO of Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network

QUICK FACTS

There are currently 78 MRI machines operating in Ontario’s hospitals.
Since 2005, wait times for MRIs have dropped by 39 per cent in the Waterloo Wellington LHIN.
Since 2003, 30 MRI machines have been approved for operation

More Links

MRI at CMH (http://www.cmh.org/documents/cmhnews/MRI_at_CMH.pdf)
MRI at CMH - Backgrounder (http://www.cmh.org/documents/cmhnews/MRI_at_CMH_backgrounder.pdf)
MRI at CMH - Questions & Answers (http://www.cmh.org/documents/cmhnews/MRI_at_CMH_q_answers.pdf)

[RangersFan]

News on Cambridge Memorial Hospital

Today I read that the hospital recently completed a fifth storey renovation that has the goal of becoming a 35 bed nursiing home. A lease has been signed with a private nursing home company, who will oversee operation of the facility. The development still requires operations funding from the Waterloo-Wellington health network.