| Vancouver Coastal Health | |
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VCH service area map |
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| Motto | Promoting wellness. Ensuring care. |
| Formation | 2001 |
| Type | British Columbia Health Authority |
| CEO | Dr. David N. Ostrow |
| Key people | Clay Adams, Mary Ackenhusen, Wendy Hannson, Duncan Campbell, Dr. Jeff Coleman, Dr. Patrick O’Connor, Dr. Patricia Daly, Dianne Doyle, Anne Harvey, Susan Wannamaker, Maureen Whyte |
| Budget | $2.8 billion (can) (approx) |
| Staff | 19,000 (approx), 5,000 volunteers (approx) |
| Website | www.vch.ca |
Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is a regional health authority providing direct and contracted health services including primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary care, home and community care, mental health services, population and preventive health and addictions services in part of Greater Vancouver and the Coast Garibaldi area.
VCH is one of six publicly-funded healthcare regions within the Canadian province of British Columbia. The Provincial Government of British Columbia, through the British Columbia Ministry of Health, sets province-wide goals, standards and performance agreements for health service delivery by the six health authorities.
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VCH serves the one in four of British Columbia’s four-million population who live in a geographic area of 58,560 square kilometres including 12 municipalities, four regional districts and 14 Aboriginal communities, including:
Vancouver Coastal Health administers 13 hospitals and 3 diagnostic and treatment centers and 15 community health centers and more than 500 facilities provide a range of direct and contracted services including home and community care, mental health services, population and preventive health, addictions services and primary care.
VCH is not responsible for all health care within its geographic service area. Other hospitals such as BC Children's Hospital, BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre, and agencies such as the BC Cancer Agency are operated by the Provincial Health Services Authority. Community partners and non-governmental organizations also provide certain health care services either in collaboration or under contract.
| Population health & wellness | Primary health care | Acute care | Home & community services | Mental health & addictions |
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Seven care facilities, including British Columbia's second-largest hospital, St. Paul's Hospital, are operated through agreement with Providence Health Care, a Roman Catholic faith-based care provider. The CEO of Providence sits as a member of VCH's executive team. Through another affiliation agreement with the United Church of Canada, VCH also provides health services in Bella Bella and Bella Coola and the surrounding areas. VCH treats patients referred for specialized services from other health authorities throughout the province.
The VCH Research Institute, though an extensive partnership with the University of British Columbia, focuses on translational research: enabling the best in patient care by rapidly turning research discoveries into new therapies, surgical techniques or treatment practices. To achieve this goal, the VCH Research Institute co-hosts to two National Centres of Excellence for Commercialization Research and one National Centre of Excellence as well as partnership with national clinical trials, research networks and industry.
The VCH Research Institute has 400 principal investigators and 200 trainees located in 350,000 square feet (33,000 m2) of dedicated research space based at VGH, UBC Hospital and GF Strong. The VCH Research Institute is one of Canada’s top funded health science research centres with 136 million in total research funding in 2007/2008.
Other health authorities in British Columbia