communityhospitals week

APRIL 2016

3THESCARBOROUGH HOSPITAL

4ST. JOSEPH’S HEALTH CENTRE

5HUMBERRIVERHOSPITAL

6NORTH YORK GENERAL HOSPITAL

7ROUGE VALLEY CENTENARYHOSPITAL

Fundraising ensures patients receive top level care in their own communityMitze Mourinho’s hospital founda-

tion had a great year. The $50-mil-lion gift Toronto East General got

from Berna and Myron Garron not only “changed the landscape for us,” she says, it changed the name of the hospital.

Announced in December, the Garrons’ dona-tion in honour of their late son Michael was the largest ever made to a community hospital in Canada.

“That’s what we like to call a stop-and-think-really-hard gift,” Mourinho said with a laugh last month, adding people call her to ask, not disrespectfully, “Why you?”

It’s a fair question. With costs rising and Ontario’s government keeping a tight lid on funds, foundations for Toronto’s local hospitals need more support.

People think their health care institutions are fully funded by the province. but they’re actually very dependent on gifts, foundation CEOs say.

The renamed Michael Garron Hospital in East York was approved to build a nine-storey patient care centre, but it must raise 10 per cent of construction costs itself.

Equipment - much of it coming from the

U.S. - isn’t funded either. When you factor that in, the province’s split with the hospital is closer to 70/30, Mourinho said.

The hospital’s still figuring out what its share is, but “those are huge dollars,” she said, and all needed so community residents can get care close to home rather than go to a downtown hospital.

Community partners

The hospital’s lucky to have community partners - getting proceeds from a barbecue at a mosque on Danforth Avenue, a cookbook sale from a Royal Bank down the street - but Mourinho said it’s eager to bring more into the fold, meeting “people who will open doors to new individuals and companies.”

Michael Garron held its first “behind-the-scenes event” on March 2, at which donors got to play with the hospital’s new prostate surgery robot, met the chief of cardiology and director of the children’s mental health program. They could see how their money is being used, Mourinho said. “It’s about us getting out there and telling our stories,” she added. “I like to say every gift is a great gift, they all make a

difference.”Mourinho

did urology research for downtown teaching hos-pitals before s h e w a s recruited to fundraise for St. Michael’s. After 17 years, she moved to TEGH, and tells the down-town busi-ness crowd a donation in East York can make more of a difference.

The Garron family had been involved with TEGH - where their son was born in 1962 - for many years, and gave a major gift to help with the robot.

Mourinho talked to them for three years, and said Berna and Myron have given to other hospitals, but what they wanted most was to improve patient care.

“They want to invest in a hospital that is a winner,” she said. “They did their home-work.”

Ways to give

However, huge donations by individuals or corporations to community hospitals are the exception not the rule. But’s that’s a situation community hospital foundations are looking to change. Large donors are encouraged to think about their community hospitals and the impacts the hospitals have on residents. In a perfect world, Toronto’s many philanthro-pists would commit to ‘adopting’ community hospitals across the city.

Greater need among hospital foundations has led to more ways to give: You can celebrate by adding your child’s name to the Baby Wall at North York General, donate your car or boat to the Humber River Hospital Foundation, or arrange to transfer your securities to a hospital and not pay capital gains tax. There are many ways to give and staff at your community hos-pital foundation are there to help you navigate your donation from the most simple to more complex gift planning.

Michael Mazza, CEO of The Scarborough Hospital Foundation, says giving should be driven by “that good feeling” you get from helping the community, not a tax break. “Philanthropy’s one of those things that’s learned,” he said, and the more you give, the more you ask about what the money’s going to achieve and that drives that good feeling donors have. “It’s the community hospitals that deliver the big volumes of care,” he said.

Most people in Scarborough weren’t born in Canada. A year or so ago, TSH started creating

community hospitals week

PublisherDana Robbins

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councils of Chinese, Caribbean and South Asian residents at which community leaders help guide strategies for fundraising. After years of uncertainty, Scarborough’s hospitals were recommended for a merger by a provincial expert panel, which also asked the government to plan a completely new hospital campus, and to build several long-awaited projects at existing ones. If the province follows the panel’s advice, TSH faces the daunting challenge of raising far more than it ever has before.

Mazza said it will need generous investors from both inside and outside Scarborough, “the entrepreneurs, the innovators” who came out of the community. “We’ll have to be a little creative.”

Here’s how you can help!

see page 8 for information on the many ways you can give to your community hospital and how to

contact the foudation offices

Michael Mazza is the CEO of The Scarborough Hospital Foundation.

Register and donate today at walktofightarthritis.ca

If someone you know is in pain, don’t just stand there.Walk with us at Woodbine Park in The Beach,

Sunday, June 5, 2016.

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2 • community hospitals week news

I Support ScarboroughHospital Will you?

Mywww.tsh.to

The Scarborough Hospital’s maternal newborn and child care program played crucial role in baby Jonah’s treatment Jonah’s parents George Cyril and Ann Manjula George-Kennedy were attending a regular appointment at The Scarborough Hospital (TSH) on Dec. 30, 2015 when doctors had to rush Ann into surgery for an emergency delivery. After his birth, with his out-look uncertain, Jonah was transferred to the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Due to various medical complica-tions, doctors were unsure if he would ever move his extremities, open his eyes, or be able to eat and drink, among other concerns.

“He was so sick in the beginning,” noted TSH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Registered Nurse Cathie Soper. “From his deliv-ery, he had some neurological issues that came about and caused him to lose the abil-ity to want to feed, to suck and swallow. His focus in the beginning was to breathe, so he lost the ability to do that.”

After a few weeks at SickKids, where he spent almost two weeks on a ven-tilator, Jonah was transferred back to TSH to continue his care in consultation with the children’s hospital.

“They didn’t think Jonah was going to make it,” recalled Soper. “He had a long road ahead of him to prepare to go home, he wasn’t feeding at all.”

Soper volunteered to be Jonah’s primary care nurse at TSH, to give his care consis-tency to bolster its chances.

The TSH Maternal Newborn and Child Care program offers many different services for

babies and parents. The hos-pital’s NICU provides round-the-clock specialized care for TSH babies who need extra help getting started in life, babies like Jonah.

Together with Jonah’s healthcare team, Soper embarked on a plan to help him start feeding within seven weeks after returning to TSH, so he could go home with his family.

“We really wanted to get him home, for his benefit and for his family,” said Soper. “That was what our goal was, to keep them separated for as little time as possible.”

Jonah began beating the

odds, drinking milk in addi-tion to his nasal-tube feed-ings, and was able to go home March 1. While he may still need an abdominal feeding tube in the future, he contin-ues to make progress.

Jonah’s parents, who moved to Scarborough from Sri Lanka five years ago, pri-marily speak Tamil.

“We were scared,” George said through an interpreter. “When Jonah came here, he was not moving anything, and day by day, he started to move his arms, and hands, and legs and eyes.”

To help them navigate their family’s healthcare journey, TSH provided an interpreter.

Interpretation services are available free for all TSH patients. The hospital has two full-time interpreters offering Tamil, Mandarin and Cantonese translation. It also offers telephone trans-lation for more then 200 lan-guages in all clinical areas.

Interpreters are available for patients with hearing difficul-ties as well.

Tamil interpreter Sri Vijenthira assisted Jonah’s family at TSH and SickKids, helping them every step along the way.

“They said he would do everything late, but he’s doing now as every other kid does, like being on his tummy and things like that, so when we see that, we are happy,” said George.

“We didn’t expect Jonah would be back home soon, but the hospitals gave him all the best care and made it possible. They also arranged a nurse to come to our home to help us, so that when we went home all the help was in place.”

Being able to get special-ized care close to home has made things a lot easier for Jonah’s family, which also includes his older sister Enora. “When he was in SickKids, it was hard for us, because we had a hard time

finding a babysitter for Enora. Here it is so much easier,” Ann said through the interpreter. “Our family would have a hard time if this hospital was not here.”

The family was able to stay together in a room at TSH to be close to Jonah and involved in his care. Hospital staff did everything they could to help the family throughout the stay, said George.

“We felt comfortable here,” he shared. “Staying here was like staying at home.”

The care Jonah received from TSH and Soper has been life-changing for him and his family, said George, and made them feel like family. “Cathie is also a mother to Jonah,” he said with a smile. “A part-time mom.”

While Jonah still has a long road ahead of him, his parents feel good knowing they can get the care he needs close to home from TSH. “We were scared before,” said Ann. “Now we know we can call and come here to get help.”

Soper, left, gets together with Jonah, his mother Ann, sister Enora and father George.

• The Scarborough Hospital has two campuses in Scarborough. The General campus is at McCowan Road and Lawrence Avenue, and the Birchmount campus is on Birchmount Road just north of Finch Avenue. For more info, go to www.tsh.to

• Community hospitals are located closer to the homes of most residents and make the birth process much less stressful.

• Community hospitals in Toronto deliver more than 29,000 babies a year on average.

Our family would have a hard time

if this hospital was not here.

– Jonah’s mom Ann

“

community hospitals week • 3

Maternal care inthe community

feature story

Just for Kids Clinic injects some fun and games into hospital visits

Dr. Eddy Lau, chief of pediatrics at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, had a

vision when it came to the design and renovation of the health cen-tre’s Just for Kids Clinic: just like the library, the grocery store, and nearby High Park, he wanted it to be simply another aspect of the community.

“The overall idea is, we don’t want kids to feel like it’s a foreign, sterile, and hospital-like place,” said Lau, who has been chief of pediatrics at St. Joe’s since 2007. “We want the space to be welcoming, another element of the local geography.”

The CIBC Just for Kids Clinic is the only pediatrician-run walk-in clinic inside a hospital in Toronto.

“It’s a great option for families if your child is not so acutely ill that they need to go to the emergency room,” said Maria Dyck, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health Centre Foundation.

The clinic’s design and decor is inspired by the nature, greenery, and animals of High Park, and nearby waterways, including Grenadier Pond and Lake Ontario. Each of the four patient examination rooms boast its own animal and theme; each bed is an animal character and is decorated to complement each furry (and not-so-furry) friend, like a lion, a hippo, and a polar bear.

“They’re wonderful rooms, so child friendly. Kids will feel happy to be in the rooms,” Dyck said. “If the environment itself feels friendly and child centered, the children will be more receptive to care.”

Last year, St, Joseph’s Health Centre saw 57,000 visits from chil-dren. Of those, 12,000 were to the CIBC Just for Kids Clinic. St. Joe’s is anticipating an increase in its volumes and so is now staffing the

CIBC Just for Kids Clinic with two pediatricians at peak times instead of one like before .

“To see it gives you the flavour for what it’s all about,” she said of the clinic. “My child is older now, but he would have loved to come here. It really is a special and magi-cal place.”

The health centre has invested $1.5 million, raised through com-munity donations and support from CIBC, to renovate the clinic, pedi-atric, and children and adolescent mental health departments. The

project exceeded its fundraising goal, Dyck said, enabling St. Joseph’s to expand on its original vision. There is a new reception, waiting area, and children’s playground with interactive games, and new clinic exam rooms.

There are peep holes that serve as windows to a magical world behind the walls, Lau said.

“They’re quite cool. The artist did a great job,” he said. “Elements from the community are incorporated into the design of the space.”

These elements include parking

meters to indicate stroller parking, and a mural that depicts animal characters riding a streetcar.

Construction was completed in several phases so that the health centre could continue operations. The official grand re-opening cel-ebration took place on Wednesday, April 20 to thank the project’s donors and re-introduce the clinic to the community,

The Just for Kids Clinic was estab-lished years before Lau arrived at St. Joe’s. Originally situated in the old hospital building and operated

as a private clinic, its operation was taken over by St. Joe’s and was relocated to the Our Lady of Mercy Wing in 2012. It has come a long way since then.

There is an inpatient unit, pedi-atric consultation clinic, pediatric surgery where broken bones are repaired and ear, nose and throat ailments are attended to, said Lau. Also included in the clinic is a medical day care unit. “The way it’s designed, the flow is much smoother and family friendly,” Lau said. “It’s much brighter now. It looks a lot bigger. The kids quite like the environment.”

The clinic remains open 363 days a year, only closing on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The hours are Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (it’s closed each day between 1 and 2 p.m.). On weekends, the CIBC Just for Kids Clinic is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. “We’re very excited. We’ve been working on this project for five years, from initial idea to the very exciting re-opening on April 20,” Dyck said. “It’s just an amazing looking space.”

To find out more, visit www.stjo-estoronto.ca

• Children came to St. Joe’s more than 57,000 times for care last year.• Parents brought their kids to our Pediatric Emergency more than 19,000 times last year.• The CIBC Just for Kids Clinic had more than 12,000 visits.• St. Joseph’s is a top ranked choice for medical students and residents in pediatrics.

Dr. Eddy Lau, Chief of Pediatrics at St. Joseph’s Health Centre visits with patient Gabriel.

feature story4 • community hospitals week

Caring for kidsat St. Joseph’s

Cancer treatment program at Humber River Hospital among the biggest in the GTA

Whenever Thelma Anderson enters the new Humber River Hospital, she doesn’t feel as if she’s in a hos-

pital, she says.“It’s so open and bright, and there are large

windows and lots of seats in the main hall,” the North York cancer patient said. “There are so many places you can sit down and re-lax.”

Anderson, 78, wasn’t feeling well two years ago, so she underwent a battery of tests, which led to a diagnosis of colorectal cancer. The disease was found at the cecum (a pouch that is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine). A secondary cancer was also discovered in the lining of the abdomen.

Anderson underwent surgery in August 2014, and then endured seven months of chemotherapy.

Though she’s been in remission for a year, Anderson has regular follow-ups at Humber River Hospital, on Wilson Avenue near Keele Street.

Contrary to what many may think, the bulk of cancer care in the province is handled at community hospitals like Humber River.

“We have a long history of having a cancer treatment facility starting at the old Hum-

ber Memorial Hospital. As a matter fact, we were the first community hospital in On-tario back in the 1980s to do clinical trials, which allowed our patients to have access to newer drugs before they became officially approved,” said Dr. Jonathan Wilson, who heads Humber River’s cancer care program.

The hospital has recently finished Phase 3 clinical trial research in breast cancer, mul-tiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leu-kemia.

Dubbed North America’s first fully digi-tal hospital, Humber River opened on Oct. 18 and is home to one of the busiest cancer treatment programs in the GTA with 17,000 visits expected in the first year alone.

InpatIent oncology unIt

The program features a 30-bed inpatient oncology unit and a chemotherapy robot that prepares the toxic drugs and performs multiple weight and product barcode checks to ensure doses are accurate.

“Chemotherapy drugs can cause muta-tions if you get exposure to it, so it’s much safer, cleaner,” Wilson said of the robot.

Humber River’s oncology team consists

of not only nurses and physicians but also a chaplain, child life specialist, registered dietitian, pharmacist, social worker and a clinical trials coordinator.

“We’ve always believed in a multidisci-plinary approach,” Wilson said.

Hospital volunteers are also an important part of the team.

‘Wonderful’

“They are just wonderful,” Anderson said. “It just makes you feel like somebody is in-terested in what’s going on, that you’re not doing all of this by yourself.”

The hospital has 600 physicians, 3,400 staff and 500 volunteers.

Unlike most hospitals, 80 percent of all inpatient rooms at Humber River are single-bed with space for a family member to spend the night.

Many of the rooms also have a bedside control terminal, allowing patients to adjust the lighting in the room, make video calls, access the internet and review their medical charts and test results.

“The exciting thing is that everything is new, the facility is bigger,” Wilson said.

“And one of the things that I really like is the fact that some of the doors open with a wave of the hand,” Anderson added.

“You don’t have to touch them.”Humber River offers numerous treatment

programs at its new facility, including in the areas of cardiology, dialysis, maternal child, medical imaging, robotic surgery and men-tal health and addiction.

It’s also a Centre of Excellence in Ontario

in laparoscopic bariatric surgery.When arriving at the hospital, patients

enter through one of nine “portals of care” depending on the nature of treatment. It’s like arriving at an airport, the hospital foun-dation said in its fundraising campaign bro-chure.

Once inside, there’s registration and a walk of no more than 30 feet to the clinic.

“It just doesn’t seem like a hospital at all,” Anderson said.

“Nobody wants to be in a hospital, but if I’m going to have to be in a hospital, that’s where I want to be.”

Dr. Jonathan Wilson, Head of Onclolgy, chats with patient Thelma Anderson and her hus-band Carl at the Humber River Hospital.

• Community hospitals provide the bulk of cancer care in the Province of Ontario

• 17,000 visits expected to HRH’s cancer treatment program this year.

• The Central East Regional Cancer Program includes The Scarborough Hospital and Rouge Valley Health System

• Breast cancer care at North York General is provided through an integrated care team.

community hospitals week • 5feature story

Cancer care in the community

GoingBeyondCare.ca

North York General breast cancer surgery program does everything all at once

Noting a lump under her left armpit, Maria Medeiros went to a doctor to have it

checked out.“He told me I was fine, to go home,”

she said.But six months later, when the lump

was noticeably bigger, the Keele Street and St. Clair Avenue resident returned, demanding the growth be treated seriously.

A mammogram detected the 48-year-old mother of two had aggres-sive stage 2 breast cancer.

She was then sent to Dr. Fahima Osman at North York General Hospital (NYGH), who explained a breast reduction might be something Medeiros should consider.

“I said ‘yes please’,” Medeiros remembered.

Medeiros, who for years had put off breast reduction for her 36DD chest due to concerns of what the result would look like, underwent oncoplasty surgery – a hybrid of breast cancer removal surgery combined with plastic surgery to improve cos-metic appearance and reduce need for future surgeries – under the team of Osman and plastic surgeon Dr. Ron Somogyi last September.

“We are trying to prevent breast deformities when women have a lumpectomy. Without oncoplastic techniques significant puckering can happen, affecting a woman’s quality of life throughout her cancer jour-ney. The whole point is to maintain a nice shape. For women with very large breasts a reduction can even help reduce toxicity from radiation,” explained Osman.

For the past two years, Osman and Somogyi have worked as a pair in the BMO Breast Diagnostic Centre – she removes the tumour, he reconstructs the breasts through plastic surgery – to not only help cut down the need for

future procedures, but to boost the self-esteem of patients, who don’t have to incur the deformities associ-ated with lumpectomy.

Medeiros, who is now a 34C, couldn’t say enough about the “beauti-ful, well done” reduction.

“It makes things so much simpler,” she said of the oncoplasty surgery, adding she will have to undergo slight touch-up surgeries down the road. “I’m ecstatic. I’m very grateful.”

In the past, breast cancer surgery used to involve one procedure to remove the tumour, then a second one to reconstruct the breast, Somogyi

said. “With the oncoplastic approach,

everything is done at the same time,” he said. “The biggest benefit is saving one or two operations. The psycho-logical benefit is not waking up from surgery with a deformity.”

Co-ordination is a key part of the treatment process. “We work hard to co-ordinate surgeries,” he said.

“All bias aside, this is the way it should be. The standard was you get your diagnosis, two weeks later you have four or five different appoint-ments. Now, you get the diagnosis and you’re booked at the multidisci-

plinary breast clinic one or two weeks later. It’s more efficient from a patient perspective.”

Each surgery is tailored to the patient, Osman said, adding breast shape and tumour size come into play. In the past, surgery would involve removing the tumour, which would leave a cavity behind. Now, the breast would be shaped and filled using the patient’s own tissue, Osman said.

RSL technique

Along with undergoing the relatively new oncoplasty surgery, Medeiros also went through another breast cancer surgery technique - Radioactive Seed Localization (RSL).

Funded by donations from the community, RSL was performed at NYGH in April 2015. It remains the only hospital in the GTA to offer RSL as a standard of care, giving patients a minimally invasive and more afford-able alternative to the previous wire localization procedure.

RSL is done on small tumours in the breast that can be detected by mammograms or breast ultrasound but not by touch. It involves inject-ing the breast with a “seed” about the size of a caraway seed either the day of surgery or up to a week before to help surgeons pinpoint the exact location of the tumour and remove early-stage breast cancer with the best possible accuracy. The seed gives off just enough radiation to be detected with a handheld Geiger counter in the operating room at the time of the lumpectomy, and is removed along with the tumour. No radioactivity is left behind.

Seed localization is an improve-ment over the widely used technique of wire localization, which can be uncomfortable and must take place the day of surgery, which may add

to patient anxiety. The wires may also shift in advance of surgery and pose a small risk of inaccuracy during lumpectomy, whereas the seed does not move.

“This can be used for other lesions that aren’t necessary cancer,” Dr. Nancy Down, medical director, inte-grated care collaborative and division head of general surgery at NYGH, pre-viously told Metroland Media Toronto, adding the procedure is strictly for the breast. “This is the way we will do all localized lumpectomies.”

As of mid-March, 307 RSL proce-dures have been performed. “Made possible thanks to the donor sup-port that brought this revolutionary new technology to our hospital,” said NYGH Foundation President Terry Pursell.

“The program has been a universal success,” Down said.

“All key players feel this is a much better technique for localization of small lesions, and allows better sched-uling for the patient procedures. Our pathologists tell us anecdotally that we remove less tissue than we did with the wire localizations.”

Maria Medeiros recently underwent a cancer removal and breast recon-struction surgery at North York General Hospital.

• 307 RSL procedures have been performed at North York General in the last 11 months.

• NYGH has the lowest breast cancer surgery wait times in the province.

• With the oncoplasty approach a tumour is removed and breast reconstruction is all done at the same time.

NYGH breast cancer care

feature story6 • community hospitals week

Rouge Valley Centenary hospital brings care closer to home for children

If your child has a serious illness, being able to get care close to home can

make a big difference in your family’s life.

The pediatric program at the Rouge Valley Centenary hospital in Scarborough makes that difference in the lives of many children and parents.

Through a wide range of pediatric outpatient services at the hospital, kids are able to get care they would otherwise have to travel to a specialty hospital like the Hospital for Sick Children to receive. Getting care closer to home is less costly and disruptive for kids and their families, and can also be quicker.

“We have quite a lot of subspecialties which (chil-dren) would have quite a long waiting list if they had to go to SickKids,” noted Dr. Karen Chang, chief of pediatrics

at Rouge Valley Centenary. “It’s great to have these ser-vices outside SickKids, so that they’re easy access and quicker access to our popula-tion in the community.”

The hospital also works in partnership with SickKids to help patients of the children’s hospital with routine care and checkups, and treatments such as chemotherapy.

Sarah Bass, a 16-year-old Oshawa resident living with Lyme disease, began treat-ment to manage her symp-toms at SickKids after being hospitalized for 10 days at the children’s hospital. While there are technicalities keep-ing her from getting govern-ment funding for treatment that could cure her disease, she is able to receive care for her symptoms. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing done through Ontario doctors failed to show

she has Lyme, but a western blot test done by a California lab and paid for by her family showed she has the disease. Lyme advocates, including the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, believe ELISA testing is flawed and often fails to catch infections.

Sarah still visits SickKids for some of her treatments, but was transferred to Rouge Valley Centenary’s Galaxy 12 Child and Teen Clinics to also receive care from Dr. Trisha Tulloch, a pediatrician and adolescent medicine special-ist. Making the switch from SickKids to Centenary has had a positive impact on her life, said Sarah.

“I can go after school, I don’t have to miss an entire day of school to be able to go to an appointment (at Centenary),” the Grade 11 student explained, adding due to her poor health she

is only able to attend two classes daily at most.

“I miss enough school (being sick),” she said. “Being able to go to Rouge Valley, I don’t need to make my whole day surrounded around an appointment, I can just do it after school, it’s really help-ful.”

As well as being disruptive, the long drive to and from SickKids takes a toll on Sarah’s health. Travelling long dis-tances to downtown Toronto can also be hard on parents of sick children, added Sarah’s mom, Laurie Bass, who is grateful her daughter can get care at Centenary.

“The flexibility there means so much, to not have (Sarah) have to take another day from school,” said Laurie. “We can be there in a relatively short time compared to the trek to Toronto. I am at home full-time, but for working parents to not have to take the whole day off work to do this, and incur the cost of eating in downtown Toronto, and the higher parking rates, the gas tank alone, the whole nine yards, means a lot.”

Dr. Tulloch goes “above and beyond” to help manage Sarah’s symptoms and nor-malize her life, referring her to other specialists and even working with her high school to make sure any available supports are in place, Laurie said.

“Having Dr. Tulloch has been truly huge for us,” she said. “She’s open, and acces-sible and remarkable.”

Sarah said the care she receives from Rouge Valley Centenary and Dr. Tulloch has made a big difference in her health. “I’m able to manage my symptoms better now,” she said. “Having Dr. Tulloch has been a big help. She’s doing everything she can to help me.”

Along with Dr. Tulloch, Centenary also added a pediatric psychiatrist and pediatric rheumatologist to its outpatient services in 2015. The Galaxy 12 clinics offer almost 20 subspecialty services. Within the last year, the hospital also added a pediatric neurology clinic

and HOPPS clinic (Healthy Outcome Paediatric Program for Scarborough). The HOPPS clinic helps youths and their families make healthy diet and lifestyle changes.

At the Galaxy 12 clin-ics, youths can also access oncology, gastroenterology, nephrology, immunology and hematology services, as well as treatment for allergies, asthma, diabetes, constipation, scoliosis, sickle

cell disease and more. Each year, more than 21,000 youths receive outpatient care from Galaxy 12 that helps improve their health and keep them out of hospital.

“We’re a hidden gem within the Rouge, and it’s definitely something to be proud of,” said Trixie Williams, pediat-ric manager at Centenary, adding the hospital will con-tinue working to expand its pediatric services.

Sarah Bass and her mother Laurie Bass. Sarah is a patient in the pediatric department at Rouge Valley Centenary hospi-tal in Scarborough.

• Community hospitals are the first place parents and children go for pediatric care in Ontario

• Call The Galaxy 12 Child and Teen Clinics at 416-281-7476.

• Other programs in Scarborough include the maternal and newborn child care unit at The Scarborough Hospital.

• Rouge Valley has a pediatric psychiatrist as part of its programs.

Care in the community

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community hospitals week • 7feature story

The Scarborough Hospital Birchmount Campus 3030 Birchmount Rd. Scarborough M1W 3W3

Humber River Hospital Finch Site2111 Finch Avenue WestToronto M3N 1N1

The Scarborough Hospital General Campus 3050 Lawrence Ave. E. Scarborough M1P 2V5

Rouge Valley Centenary2867 Ellesmere Rd.Scarborough M1E 4B9

Humber River Hospital 1235 Wilson AvenueToronto M3M 0B2

NYGH Seniors’ Health Centre2 Buchan Court North York M2J 5A3

NYGH General Site4001 Leslie St.North York M2K 1E1

Etobicoke General Hospital101 Humber College Blvd. Etobicoke M9V 1R8

NYGH Branson Ambulatory Care Centre and the Urgent Care Centre555 Finch Avenue West North York M2R 1N5

Toronto East General Hospital 825 Coxwell AvenueToronto M4C 3E7

TORONTO

* Plotting locations approximate

Toronto’s Community Hospitals

HUMBER RIVER HOSPITALWeb: www.hrhfoundation.ca • Email: foundation@hrh.caPhone: 416-242-1000, ext. 81500 • Mail: Humber River Hospital Foundation, 1235 Wilson Avenue, Level 1, Toronto, ON, M3M OB2In Person: The Foundation offices are located on Level 1 of the Humber River HospitalCharitable Registration No. 11930 6306 RR0001

NORTH YORK GENERAL FOUNDATIONWeb: www.nyghfoundation.ca • Email: foundation@nygh.on.caPhone: 416-756-6944 • Fax: 416-756-9047 • Mail: North York General Foundation, 4001 Leslie Street, Toronto, ON M2K 1E1In Person: The Foundation offices are located by the south elevators on the first floor of North York General HospitalCharitable Registration No. 88875 1245 RR0001

ROUGE VALLEY CENTENARYWeb: www.myrougevalley.ca • Email: foundation@rougevalley.caPhone: 416-281-7342 • Mail: Rouge Valley Centenary, 2867 Ellesmere Road, Scarborough, ON MIE 4B9In Person: Southeast corner suite, Rouge Valley Centenary Courtyard, 2867 Ellesmere Road, ScarboroughCharitable Registration No. 123797474RR0001

THE SCARBOROUGH HOSPITALWeb: www.tsh.to • Email: foundation@tsh.to • Phone: 416.431.8130Mail: The Scarborough Hospital Foundation, 3030 Lawrence Avenue East, Suite 108, Toronto, ON M1P 2T7 In Person: General campus, Medical Mall, Suite 108, 3030 Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto or Birchmount campus, Administration Offices, 3030 Birchmount Road, TorontoCharitable Registration No. 11914 2263 RR0001

ST. JOSEPH’S HEALTH CENTREWeb: www.foundation.stjoe.on.ca • Email: foundation@stjoe.on.caPhone: 416.530-6704 • Mail: St. Joseph’s Health Centre Foundation,30 The Queensway, Toronto ON, M6R 1B5In Person: 5th floor, Sunnyside Building, 30 The QueenswayCharitable Registration No. 11918 3382 RR0001

Contact:

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St. Joseph’s Health Centre30 The QueenswayToronto M6R 1B5