Barrie Ontario’s Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (“RVH”) is one step closer to helping cancer patients feel more at home.
Staff and officials have been handed the keys toRotary Place. This signifies a major milestone in the Phase 1 Expansion and the delivery of patient care in the community. The turnover ofRotary Placeto RVH means transitional occupancy can begin.
Rotary Place, a stand-alone building, is adjacent to the Simcoe Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre (“SMRCC”). The facility will be a lodge for cancer patients, a family medicine teaching unit (“FMTU”), and administrative offices. The new FMTU space will allow the program to expand to better serve the community and provide better access to family doctors. The new administrative offices into which RVH will move will allow for the reallocation to health care delivery of office space within the hospital.
The FMTU will be the first entity to move into the four-story Rotary Place. This unit is a partnership between RVH and theUniversityofTorontodepartment of family and community medicine, providing training to family medicine residents in their final two years of training.
The third floor FMTU unit features 22 exam rooms, office space, a classroom, a procedure room and a counseling room. The 15 current family medicine residents will be joined by family practices operating out of the shared space. The new clinics will better enable the residents to learn and practice in a patient-friendly environment which will improve patient care, and enhanced access to physicians within the community.
By late spring, the non-clinical departments — administration, human resources, finance, quality and risk management and decision support — will move intoRotary Place. In early summer, as part of the start up of the SMRCC, Rotary House will occupy the building’s entire second floor, providing accommodation for cancer patients who must travel to Barrie for their life-saving treatment.
The lodge will have 20 rooms, a business centre, dining room, a lounge, a private terrace and activity rooms. It connects directly to the SMRCC via an underground tunnel, providing weather-proof access.
To ensure a safe, smooth transition, Parkin has phased the planning to optimize the needs of the community while remaining focused on delivering safe patient care.