Canada’s first public hospital and research institute to be designed, built, financed and maintained by the private sector was opened on October 27th by Premier Dalton McGuinty.
The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre replaces the 100-year-old Royal Ottawa Hospital. Its affiliated research institute, the uOttawa Institute of Mental Health Research now resides in a tower with state-of-the-art laboratories and technology. The facility, a teaching hospital of the University, was built in two years, finished six weeks ahead of schedule, and on budget.
The new Royal Ottawa and the research institute were conceived as a private-public partnership, known as an Alternative Financing and Procurement, that ensured the public delivery of health care in a facility that was designed and constructed to exact specifications set out by the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group. The Healthcare Infrastructure Company of Canada, the partner in the arrangement, provided the capital costs for construction and will maintain the new facility for the next 20 years.
The complete re-development of the hospital and research institute provided the opportunity for the application of a wireless information technology system to be deployed in the entire facility.
“A new research institute has enabled us to recruit some of the brightest stars in neuroscience and behavioral research from around the world,” said Dr. Zul Merali, CEO of the uOttawa Institute of Mental Health Research.
