EDITOR'S NOTE
ADAPTING IN THE FACE OF CHANGE IT WASN’T LONG AGO that I thought the holidays were going to be different than 2020. If I were a betting woman, I would’ve put money on it. But I’ve since learned not to gamble on COVID. The newest variant has spread fast and furious, quickly putting an end to Christmas plans. What the virus has in store for 2022 is anyone’s guess. However, after two years of the pandemic, I remain hopeful that we are nearing its end. Unfortunately, Canada’s healthcare system has suffered greatly and it will take years to recover from the damage wrought by the pandemic. Burnt-out nurses that have been pushed beyond their limits are quitting in droves and there’s a backlog of more than half a million surgeries. Perhaps never before in history has a single event exposed the fragility of our healthcare system. While not broken per se, much needs to be done to make the system more resilient to future shocks. This includes not only subsequent pandemics but the effects of climate change, bringing us to Designing for the Future. In this article, author Rebecca Melnyk delves into the Climate Resilience Guidelines for Health Facility Planning and Design in British Columbia, which were recently developed to help ensure new healthcare facilities are better equipped to deal with the increasing challenges of climate change, including extreme heat and humidity, air quality impacts, flooding and extreme events. But to begin is our cover story on Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital. The first all-new hospital constructed in Ontario in more than 30 years officially opened as a full-service hospital in June 2021, after exclusively being dedicated to the COVID-19 response. For four months, the state-ofthe-art healthcare facility operated to alleviate the significant strain on the province’s hospital system, housing critically ill COVID patients. Another Ontario hospital spotlighted is Markham Stouffville Hospital. The 329-bed facility deserves kudos for its water efficiency strategy, which has reduced consumption by more than 20 per cent. The hospital’s manager of energy and infrastructure, Allan Kelly, details the program in Kick into Conservation Mode. Rounding out this issue, we explore the importance of working with the right restoration services contractor and how to find the best fit in Don’t Leave Disaster Recovery to Chance. We then close with top trends in green healthcare, based on data collected from the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care’s Green Hospital Scorecard.
Clare Tattersall claret@mediaedge.ca
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