McGill University Health Centre

McGill University Health Centre Centre universitaire de santé McGill
Geography
Location	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Organization
Care system	Public (RAMQ)
Funding	Public (MSSS)
Hospital type	Teaching
Affiliated university	McGill University
Services
Emergency department	Multiple
Beds	1,379
History
Founded	1997
Links
Website	muhc.ca
Lists	Hospitals in Canada

The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC, French: Centre universitaire de santé McGill) is one of two major healthcare networks in the city of Montreal, Quebec. It is a bilingual teaching hospital affiliated with McGill University and is one of the largest medical institutions in Canada. Most of its funding comes from Quebec taxpayers through the Ministry of Health and Social Services as mandated by the Canada Health Act. The hospital's primary mission is to provide inpatient and ambulatory care to its downtown and West Island clientele, as well as specialized and ultraspecialized services to the broader metropolitan and provincial population.

Overview

The MUHC was founded in 1997 through the merger of five hospitals: the Montreal General Hospital, the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal Children's Hospital, the Montreal Neurological Institute, and the Montreal Chest Institute. In 2008, the Hôpital de Lachine joined the merged entity. All of these hospitals now form interdependent components of the MUHC network; together, they field 1,379 beds and employ 1,587 physicians, 2,715 researchers and educators, and over 14,000 nurses, technicians and support staff.^[1] Every year, more than 700,000 patients are admitted for care at the MUHC.^[1]

Montreal General Hospital

The Montreal General Hospital, established in 1819 on the southern flank of Mount Royal, is one of the world's first teaching hospitals. Today, it functions as a full service hospital as part of the MUHC; with 479 beds, it is the second largest in the network and is one of two designated level I trauma centres in the city.^[2]

Glen site

New MUHC

The MUHC's new hospital has been built on the site of the former Glen railyard near the Vendôme intermodal station. The megafacility will replace the existing facilities of the Royal Victoria Hospital (closing April 26, 2015) , the Montreal Children's Hospital (closing May 24, 2015), and the Montreal Chest Institute (closing June 14, 2015); it includes the most advanced medical research centre in North America as well as a dedicated oncology facility, and will be the new home of the separate but closely linked Shriners Hospital for Children Canada.^[3] The Glen site hospital will include 500 individual rooms, more than 25 centralized ambulatory clinics, and two emergency rooms.^[4]

Royal Victoria Hospital

The Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) will be closing its doors on April 26, 2015. Patients will move to the Glen site beginning at 7 a.m. The RVH emergency room closes at 5 a.m. The Royal Victoria Hospital, established in 1893 and located on Pine Avenue on the southern flank of the Mount Royal, is the largest campus in the MUHC network with 517 beds. The hospital maintains an emergency room with level II trauma care capabilities, and is home to the MUHC's palliative care and organ transplantation departments.^[5] The Royal Victoria Hospital also includes the Allan Memorial Institute, a psychiatric facility infamous for its role in the Central Intelligence Agency's behavioural engineering Project MKUltra in the 1950s.^[5]

Montreal Children's Hospital

The Montreal Children's Hospital was founded in 1904

Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) will be closing its doors on May 24, 2015. Patients will move to the Glen site beginning at 7 a.m. The Montreal Children’s Hospital emergency room closes at 5 a.m. The Montreal Children's Hospital is one of two pediatric institutions in the city, the other one being the Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine, affiliated to the Université de Montréal. The MCH contains 144 beds, including 12 intensive care beds, and operates a pediatric emergency room with level III trauma care capabilities.^[6]

Montreal Neurological Hospital

Commonly known as 'The Neuro', the Montreal Neurological Hospital is an 85-bed academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscientific research, training and clinical care, located on Doctor Penfield Avenue on the southern flank of Mount Royal. Founded in 1934 by neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, its achievements include the development of the Montreal procedure for the treatment of epilepsy, major breakthroughs in Alzheimer's disease research, and pioneering the use of electrical probes in surgery.^[7]

Montreal Chest Institute

The Montreal Chest Institute will be closing its doors on June 14, 2015. Patients continue to move to the Glen site beginning at 2 p.m. Founded in 1903 as a response to a tuberculosis epidemic in the city, the Montreal Chest Institute is an academic medical centre specializing in pulmonology. It is located on Saint Urbain Street just north of downtown Montreal and consists of an outpatient clinic and a 32-bed inpatient clinic, including a 7-bed intensive care unit.^[8]

Hôpital de Lachine

The Lachine hospital, located on Saint Antoine Street in the Lachine borough of Montreal, is the only primarily French-language facility in the MUHC network and in the West Island. While a relatively small hospital, it maintains an emergency room with level II trauma care capabilities and is home to several departments of the MUHC, including a long-term care facility, the Pavilion Camille-Lefebvre.^[9]

Consolidation

Like the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, the McGill University Health Centre is in the process of building a megahospital to consolidate its services in a single state-of-the-art facility. After a long and troubled process, the new medical centre is being built for an estimated cost of 1.3 billion dollars.^[10] The project is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Glen site

New MUHC

The MUHC's new hospital is being built on the site of the former Glen railyard near the Vendôme intermodal station. The megafacility will replace the existing facilities of the Royal Victoria Hospital, the Montreal Children's Hospital, the and the Montreal Chest Institute; it will also include the most advanced medical research centre in North America as well as a dedicated oncology facility, and will be the new home of the separate but closely linked Shriners Hospital for Children Canada.^[3] The Glen site hospital will include 500 individual rooms, more than 25 centralized ambulatory clinics, and two emergency rooms.^[4] The project is scheduled to be completed in late 2014 and the facility is expected to be fully functional by mid 2015.

Mountain and Lachine sites

The new megahospital will not replace either the Montreal General Hospital or the Hôpital de Lachine, which will undergo major renovations and function as satellites of the main hospital.^[11] The MGH will remain the only level I trauma care centre in downtown Montreal, while the Lachine hospital will continue to serve as a local general care centre.^[12]

Controversy

The 2004-2011 tenure of Arthur Porter, a politically active Montreal physician, as the hospital's CEO attracted extensive media scrutiny which intensified when it was revealed that he had received $22.5 million in consulting fees from SNC-Lavalin. After receiving these payments, Porter awarded the firm with a $1.3 billion contract related to the construction of the hospital. These dealings were found to be in violation of the Quebec Health Act, and along with the emergence of other questionable business activities undertaken by Porter, led to calls for his resignation. Nevertheless, the hospital's board of directors came out in support of Porter, who, in light of mounting media and public pressure, voluntarily resigned on December 5, 2011.^[13][14]

Further investigation of the case by Quebec anti-corruption investigators resulted in allegations to the involvement of SNC-Lavilin and health centre employees in fraud and forgery. The investigators then issued a warrant for Porter's arrest on February 27, 2013, on charges of fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, taking secret commissions and money laundering. Porter had since left Canada, and was apprehended by INTERPOL agents with his wife in Panama, where he remains imprisoned awaiting extradition to Canada.^[13][14]

See also

• Allan Memorial Institute, houses the Psychiatry Department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, part of the McGill University Health Centre;
• Douglas Mental Health University Institute, a teaching hospital also affiliated with McGill University;
• Jewish General Hospital, the other bilingual hospital in Montreal, affiliated with McGill University;
• St. Mary's Hospital, a teaching hospital affiliated with McGill University;
• Lakeshore General Hospital, also affiliated with McGill University;
• Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, the other major hospital network in Montreal, affiliated to the Université de Montréal.

References

External links

• McGill University Health Centre
• McGill University Health Centre Foundation