Giving thanks and celebrating our proudest achievements of 2023

To our community, 

This year represented one of new beginnings for Michael Garron Hospital (MGH) and Michael Garron Hospital Foundation.  

We began 2023 by marking a momentous milestone: the opening of the Ken and Marilyn Thomson Patient Care Centre (Thomson Centre), the centrepiece of the largest redevelopment project in the hospital’s history. As part of this achievement, we also announced the successful completion of the foundation’s Heart of the East fundraising campaign, which raised $126 million from 2018 to 2023 – exceeding its goal of $100 million. 

The Thomson Centre adds an impressive 550,000 square feet to our hospital campus to offer greater privacy, dignity and respite in individuals’ healing and recovery journeys. It has been very gratifying to see our teams and patients respond to the new facility as they give and receive care. We are so proud of how our staff, clinicians, learners, volunteers, donors and partners came together to open this space in an effort to address the evolving needs of our diverse community. As we look ahead to 2024, our campus redevelopment and transformation continues as we complete renovations, including in our maternal newborn and child clinics, food and retail services and diagnostic programs. 

So many of these exciting changes are made possible by donors who prioritize the health and well-being of our community. Gifts to our hospital support everything from tools and equipment to programs and innovation as we continue to deliver great care to everyone who needs us. Every gift to our hospital makes an impact as we continue to enhance our offerings and confront new challenges. 

This summer, we also launched a new Strategic Plan – one that considers and incorporates the voices of more than 1,000 people. These developments will help guide the future of our hospital so that, together, we can build a stronger, healthier East Toronto. 

Amid these new beginnings, there were also constants. We continued to innovate and grow our hospital services to better serve our patients and support the recovery of the health system. We remained steadfast in our commitment to working with our Ontario Health Team, East Toronto Health Partners, to meet the health and social needs of our community. And we always found time to express gratitude and celebrate the people who make our organization great. We are proud that MGH was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers for 2023 for the eighth year in a row. 

As we prepare to begin a new year, we will update this page to reveal and reflect on some of our proudest achievements of 2023. Many of these successes were made possible by you – our dedicated teams, donors, partners and community. We hope you enjoy celebrating these accomplishments as much as we do. 

Wishing you a safe and healthy holiday season and happy New Year.

Opened the Ken and Marilyn Thomson Patient Care Centre 

We kicked off the year by marking a huge milestone with the opening of the Thomson Centre. The centrepiece of our historic campus transformation, the building officially opened for outpatient care on January 23 and for inpatient care on February 4. It includes 215 inpatient beds, two floors of brand new outpatient clinics, and public spaces, such as a spacious main lobby and registration area; new retail spaces; four levels of underground parking; and two outdoor terraces, including one open for patients, staff and visitors to enjoy. 

Under construction since 2018, the Thomson Centre replaces 50% of MGH’s existing patient care spaces, which helps ensure the hospital is better equipped to continue providing high-quality, patient-centred care to its growing community. MGH's larger redevelopment project will continue into 2024 and beyond with renovations to existing areas of the hospital, decommissioning of outdated wings and new greenery and landscaping to welcome the community to the new facility. 

Launched new Strategic Plan and announced our new President and CEO 

In April, we launched our Strategic Plan 2023-2025: Great care inspired by community. This new plan, which features new vision, purpose and values statements, powerfully reflects our hospital’s deep community roots grounded in health equity, inclusion and social justice. We heard from more than 1,000 people through our strategic planning process including those who live, work, give and receive care at the hospital. This strategic plan was truly informed and guided by the MGH community and we are grateful for the many voices that helped bring this plan to life. 

In June 2023, MGH welcomed Melanie Kohn as the new President and CEO to guide the hospital as it embarks on its new vision. In September, Melanie shared “100 connections in 100 days” highlighting her reflections and commitment to connecting with, listening to and learning from the people that make up the special community at MGH and in East Toronto.  

“It is the passion and genuine connection that people feel for this community that inspired me to join this organization,” Melanie said. “At MGH, people are part of something bigger than themselves. It takes courage to change and transform systems while consistently demonstrating compassion for others. MGH is a place where courage lives and thrives.” 

Opened Thorncliffe Park Youth Wellness Hub 

We collaborated with Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario, TNO – The Neighbourhood Organization – and other members of our Ontario Health Team, East Toronto Health Partners (ETHP) – to launch the Thorncliffe Park Youth Wellness Hub this summer. Services at the Youth Wellness Hub are provided by TNO, Flemingdon Health Centre, Health Access Thorncliffe Park, LOFT Community Services, MGH, SickKids Garry Hurvitz Centre for Community Mental Health and Strides Toronto. 

Located in Thorncliffe Park, the bright, welcoming space provides a variety of integrated walk-in services for youth aged 12 to 25, including mental health and substance use supports, employment and settlement services, trades training and social programs. This helps advance health equity in Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park, two neighbourhoods that are home to some of the highest concentrations of individuals under the age of 25 in Toronto and where there is low access to mental health and substance use services despite high levels of need. 

The hospital made other strides in its dedication to delivering integrated, community-based care this year. This included working with ETHP to launch the Toronto Health and Social Services Directory and continuing to support Health Access Taylor-Massey.  

Successful completion of our Heart of the East campaign 

This year, our $100 million Heart of the East campaign closed at an incredible $26 million above target, providing more funding than anticipated towards our campus transformation and areas of greatest need. 

Thanks to your commitment, our facilities are starting to match MGH’s reputation for excellence. By inspiring generosity and investing personally, you’re helping to renew and enhance tools, equipment, spaces and training that ultimately enable our team to provide great care to everyone who depends on us. 

To the many community members and organizations who donate to our hospital, we extend our gratitude for prioritizing our efforts and taking our mission to heart. Your philanthropy speaks volumes about how much you care about equitable healthcare in your community. May it fill you with pride to see the impact of your donations on the well-being of our patients and their loved ones. 

Here’s wishing you a safe and meaningful holiday season from all your friends at Michael Garron Hospital Foundation. 

Partnered with peer hospitals to launch innovative programs 

As part of our commitment to grow our hospital services to support the recovery of our health system and meet the needs of the communities we serve, we partnered with Sunnybrook’s Holland Centre to launch the Toronto Regional Arthroplasty Collaborative (TRAC) in April. The program helps reduce wait times for hip and knee joint replacement surgery in Ontario by opening the Holland Centre's operating room on weekends to provide pre-scheduled access to orthopaedic surgeons from other TRAC partnering hospitals such as MGH. This increases the number of patients who can receive arthroplasty surgery and shortens everyone’s wait. 

In October, MGH also collaborated with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital's Extensive Needs Service Program, Grandview Kids and Surrey Place on a regional partnership that allows families of some of the province’s most vulnerable children to connect to a team of professionals, including physicians, social workers, occupational therapists and behavioural consultants, who work together to provide tailored support based on the individual needs of the child or youth and their families. 

In addition, our teams celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Long Stay Critical Care Program, a pilot initiative designed to improve overall Intensive Care Unit (ICU) capacity in Toronto and the quality of care for prolonged critically ill patients. Since the program’s launch last fall, MGH has successfully supported 43 patients who have been referred from partnering hospitals in our catchment area. 

Opened the rands family simulation centre 

We advanced our work in research, innovation and education by opening The Rands Family Simulation Centre in September. Located in our new Thomson Centre, this space provides patient-care simulation, technical skills training and on-site team simulations in a safe, reproducible and supportive environment. This allows learners at MGH to practice the skills needed during real-life scenarios in providing care. 

We also appointed our first Interim Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Kelly Smith. In this role, Dr. Smith works with hospital stakeholders to develop a clear vision and plan to create a Research Institute at MGH. This helps elevate the research done at the hospital and improve care for the many diverse and high-priority communities MGH serves. Dr. Smith holds this role in addition to her existing position as the inaugural Michael Garron Chair in Patient Oriented Research (Research Chair) – a shared position with the University of Toronto. 

We spotlighted our research and innovation work in other ways this year, too. We refreshed our Research and Innovation page, shared stories of our researchers, and hosted a retreat among our hospital and foundation Boards of Directors that focused on how a bold research and academic mandate will accelerate our goals and vision as a hospital. 

MGH is also a partner of the University of Toronto’s Scarborough Academy of Medicine and Integrated Health, a new medical academy that broke ground this year and is projected to open in fall 2026. It will train physicians, nurse practitioners and other healthcare professionals right in the region – to serve the region. This new generation of healthcare professionals will help fill a gap in Scarborough, an area that has been identified as in high need of physicians and a portion of which is in MGH’s catchment area.