News

Select floors of the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower have opened to support the COVID-19 response

Article by Selma Al-Samarrai for Unity Health Toronto





Unity Health Toronto’s teams have accelerated the work to open select floors of the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower (PGT) this week in order to enhance our
critical care capacity and COVID-19 readiness. The intensive care units on the 4th and 7th floors will open first and be dedicated to COVID-19 critical care
patients.





This accelerated opening, led by the Operational Readiness and Planning teams, was made possible by the immense amount of work from many Unity Health
Toronto teams, Ellis Don and multiple contractors and consultants on site.With the 4th and 7th floors opening on April 15, St. Michael’s Hospital now has 33
net new beds to support the immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic.





“We are so appreciative of our partners in Ellis Don, the NORR Architects, and all of the contractors and consultants that worked on the Peter Gilgan Patient
Care Tower. It is a major milestone in our project that we were able to successfully accelerate the opening of this state-of-the-art facility. This can only be
done with a lot of coordination and collaboration between our teams and the construction team,” said Tom Parker, Interim Director of Redevelopment.The
opening of the PGT will help address immediate COVID-19 critical care needs for Unity Health Toronto and will help with system capacity for the
province.“With the current pressures on the Hospital as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the opening of critical care beds will bring a much needed relief
to our Healthcare System and to the City of Toronto,” said Dr. Tim Rutledge, President and CEO of Unity Health Toronto.





“I personally want to thank all of the many teams that have been working to enable this acceleration. The opening of the Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower will
allow us to care for more critically ill patients in single patient rooms that were specifically designed with infection control measures in mind.”The numerous
teams that have come together to enable this safe and efficient acceleration of the tower’s operational readiness and transition include: the Operational
Readiness team that has led the acceleration, the Planning and Redevelopment team, the various critical care teams, Environmental Services, Infection
Prevention and Control, Information Technology and Telephony, Patient Transport, Clinical Equipment, Clinical Engineering, Clinical Informatics, Fire Safety,
Engineering and Facilities, Security, Procurement, Supply Chain, Capital Sourcing, Third Party Logistics, Finance, Respiratory Therapy, Pharmacy,





The Peter Gilgan Patient Care Tower is part of the larger St. Michael’s 3.0 redevelopment project. The tower was made possible by Peter Gilgan, the founder
and CEO of Mattamy Homes, who made a historic $30 million donation to St. Michael’s, and by Element Fleet Management, who contributed an additional
$15 million. A massive thank you to Peter Gilgan, Element Fleet Management, and the many other donors whose generous contributions made the Peter
Gilgan Patient Care Tower a reality for Unity Health Toronto’s staff and patients.About St. Michael's Hospital
St. Michael’s Hospital provides compassionate care to all who enter its doors. The hospital also provides outstanding medical education to future health care
professionals in more than 27 academic disciplines. Critical care and trauma, heart disease, neurosurgery, diabetes, cancer care, care of the homeless and