Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre 

Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre

“The Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre will revolutionize the future of brain health like never before. It will be a global hub of innovation that will accelerate the discovery of the next generation of treatments, prevention and possible cures to the world’s most debilitating brain conditions.”*

HH Angus is providing mechanical and Electrical engineering for this 118,285 ft2, three-storey above-grade structure. The building will be constructed within a dense urban campus between existing building wings and will be connected to the main hospital circulation spine, with flexibility provided to accommodate future expansion.

Our project scope includes:

  • Expansions to existing infrastructure, including a new 1600 ton centrifugal 4160 volt Chiller;
  • A major modification to the Emergency Power System to provide emergency power to at least one chiller and the chilled water distribution system;
  • New steam service and high voltage electrical services to the new building from the existing power plant
  • A significant Information Technology service and distribution system, including fibre cable connections to the hospital’s existing Core Distribution Rooms, new network hub room components, including network switches and all on-floor cable/outlet systems
  • Significant expansions to the existing Building Automation System, central electrical metering system, fire alarm system, security system, CCTV system, nurse call system and Code White systems.

The new building includes:

  • Mechanical and electrical services in the basement designed to provide for the current construction, as well as a possible future four-storey addition
  • Adult In-Patient Mental Health Unit and PICU Unit on the ground floor, both with access to outdoor courtyards
  • Child & Youth Mental Health Unit
  • Circadian Study Unit on 1st Floor
  • Neuromodulation Treatment Unit, Enhanced Examination, Teaching and Research units on the 2nd Floor

The Sunnybrook M&E services tunnel is a complicated space. Because this is a new building on an existing site and represents a major expansion to the campus, connections to existing buildings with multiple M&E ties are required.

Among the interesting challenges of this project was obtaining the required mechanical and electrical services spaces. The larger they became, the more they impacted the functional programming and the project budget. Compromises were made regarding ceiling heights, and collaboration with facilities management staff helped in obtaining the space required.

As well, the main entrance “glass box” presented some unique mechanical design challenges. Ventilating a two-storey structure with no exposed services required innovative engineering, including ventilating from below.

In designing the building systems for this project, our team devoted special attention to providing a living space that offers an excellent therapeutic environment for the brain-injured patient while, at the same time, ensuring the safety of both patients and staff; in particular, preventing any opportunity for self-harm by patients.

Within HH Angus’ lighting scope, LED linear fixtures set the stage for modern lighting aesthetics used throughout the new, state-of-the-art centre, including corridors, inpatient bedrooms, the main triple height lobby, and the exterior soffits. The efficient LED non-glare, dimmable lighting will be connected to a centralized lighting control system. The provided lighting management software enables facility managers to monitor, maintain and control the entire networked lighting control system, including schedules and energy usage. 

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Plumbing | Lighting Design | Audio-Visual Design | Communications Design | Condition Assessment | Feasibility Study


PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 118,285 ft2 | Status: Ongoing | Adult In-Patient Mental Health Unit | PICU Unit | Child and Youth Mental Health Unit | Circadian Study Unit | Neuromodulation Treatment Unit | Complex M&E services tunnel


LOCATION 
Toronto, Ontario


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Expansion to existing infrastructure | Major modification to Emergency Power System | New steam service and high voltage electrical services | Significant IT service and distribution system | Expansion to numerous systems, including  BAS, electrical metering, fire alarm, security, CCTV, nurse call and Code White


View of the main entrance “glass box”

Innovative engineering

The main entrance “glass box” presented some interesting mechanical design challenges. Ventilating a two-storey structure with no exposed services required innovative engineering, including ventilating from below.

Experience counts 

HH Angus’ many years of working on the Sunnybrook campus and our familiarity with this particular space aided significantly in designing the connections to the existing services.

Interior of a patient room

St. Joseph’s Health Centre

Mental Health Emergency Services Unit

We consulted with hospital clinical staff, the architect and best practices documentation in the field of Mental Health design in order to provide tamper-proof and anti-ligature versions of M&E devices and services in all patient rooms.

Our project scope was the complete redevelopment of the existing Mental Health Emergency Services Unit. This involved upgrading and modernizing the unit in order to support eight patient rooms, (the previous unit had only three patient rooms).

New, energy-efficient LED lighting fixtures, complete with dimming controls, replaced the old, inefficient fluorescent lighting fixtures. Remote patient room controls, located at the Nurses’ Station, allow clinical staff to control the electrical receptacle in each patient’s room, the smart glass on the room’s door/window, as well as the room’s lighting fixture, including remote-controlled dimming. A modern real-time locating system was also provided; it includes patient tracking, staff duress and patient wandering functionality. Note: This project was honoured with a 2020 Toronto IES Illumination Section Award

More than 30 IP-based security cameras were installed, including two cameras in each patient room. These are viewable from computers at the Nurses’ Station.

One of the challenges of the project was that the hospital did not have a viable existing IT room to house all the new voice/data infrastructure. As a result, we had to design a new IT room on the floor below the renovation area to support the new unit and future Emergency Department redevelopment. This was done during construction; therefore, the design and coordination were fast-tracked and subsequently completed successfully.

Also, remote patient room controls were not well defined throughout the design process. During construction, we had to quickly coordinate with several vendors, each with a proprietary system, in order to provide a solution that the contractor could execute.

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering | Communications and Security Design | Lighting Design


PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Completed 2019 | Winner:  2020 Toronto IES Illumination Section Award | Energy-efficient LED lighting | Remote room controls | Real-time locating service | 30 IP-based cameras | New IT room


LOCATION 
Toronto, Ontario


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Tamper-proof and anti-ligature M&E services | Design of remote room controls to provide enhanced staff safety and minimizing disturbance to patients | Fast-track design of IT room was required during construction stage


Remotely located controls

 

Remotely located controls

This approach provides increased staff security and convenience, and minimizes disturbance to patients.

Optimal visibility

A new security and communications design allows safe observation of patient activities from a secure staff area.

 

Observation of patient activities from a secure staff area

Niagara Health System 

ICAT Strategy

“Angus Connect’s approach to developing the ICAT Design Program for the new South Niagara Hospital was both forward-looking and grounded in reality, giving us a solid foundation as we move into Stage 3 of our redevelopment project. We really appreciated their fresh perspective on emerging technology, and in-depth knowledge of the opportunities and risks inherent in these types of projects.”

Sime Pavlovic, CIO, Niagara Health

Niagara Health (NH) operates five hospitals and community care facilities in the Niagara Region, serving a diverse population of nearly half a million people and the second highest percentage of seniors aged 65+ in Ontario. The new South Niagara Hospital is expected to consolidate three of the existing sites into a state-of-the-art facility located south of Niagara Falls.

Angus Connect was engaged to help NH achieve their ICAT vision by translating the future state vision into a forward-looking and feasible ICAT design program which could be easily translated into Project Specific Output Specifications (PSOS) as part of Stage 3. Niagara Health was able to capitalize on a unique opportunity, having recently constructed the new St. Catharines Site hospital (2013) which incorporated many current ICAT solutions at the time – the lessons learned from this redevelopment project were addressed as part of the ICAT design program, along with governance and change management recommendations.

In order to complete this work, we participated in the development of the ICAT vision and principles, then developed evaluation criteria and prioritization of ICAT solutions. Our team took a novel approach to stakeholder engagement, categorizing technology options as bronze, silver or gold in order to indicate various levels of implementation and to stimulate productive discussion regarding the functional requirements and use cases for clinical, business and building systems. The output from these sessions was summarized into solution profiles which detailed system requirements, key outcomes & performance indicators, governance, change management strategies, potential risks and challenges (along with mitigation measures), and proposed scope to support Stage 3 documentation.

Finally the ICAT solutions were mapped onto an eight-year implementation plan which addressed both pre-construction and post-construction activities, in addition to those in scope for the redevelopment project. Our team also generated a comprehensive budget cost estimate which included evaluation of potential funding sources based on our previous experience working on Infrastructure Ontario and MoHLTC-funded projects.

 

SERVICES
ICAT Strategy | Planning, Design and Compliance (PDC)


PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Completed 2020 | Multi-site hospital system which competes with US hospitals due to its proximity to the border | Unique opportunity to incorporate into the design program lessons learned from recent construction of St. Catharines Site hospital


LOCATION 
Niagara Region, Ontario


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Angus Connect successfully delivered a detailed ICAT Design Report in less than three months, including a roadmap, equipment planning and budget cost estimates | Angus Connect presented its findings from the ICAT design at the Niagara Health Innovation Conference in February 2020


Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal

Temporary Energy Centre

The CHUM temporary energy centre was built to supply Saint-Luc Hospital with steam, cooling, heating and emergency power services during the demolition of the existing energy centre and the construction of the new CHUM hospital and its energy centre. The temporary energy centre operated until commissioning of the new permanent energy centre was completed.

HH Angus was retained to study the equipment and systems required for this installation, and to prepare the phasing plan. We were also responsible for development of the conceptual design and the detailed design, and for engineering services over the course of construction and commissioning of the provisional energy centre.

This project resulted in a very complex power plant constructed in a constrained space on top of the loading dock building. The six spiral tube boilers supplied 860 kPa (125 psig) of steam to each mechanical room serving the existing facilities at Saint-Luc Hospital, the CHUM Research Centre, the Édouard Asselin and André Viallet Pavilions. As well, provision was made for the construction activities for the new facility. The electrical supply was upgraded from 12.5kV to 25kV, with transformers distributed throughout the site.

The steam piping to each building had to be routed so as not to interfere with construction of the massive P3 CHUM mega-hospital. Provisions for future connections were made to reduce interruptions of the steam supply to the CHUM Research Centre.

Working in collaboration with the Constructor, the general contractor and the subcontractors, we were able to apply innovative design approaches to reduce the cost of the energy centre. This was achieved while maintaining the facility’s established life cycle parameters, and without compromising technical or operational quality.

A very important aspect of our work was ensuring that the connection of the new temporary energy centre and the disconnection and the decommissioning of the existing energy centre would have no impact on the day-to-day operations of the existing health care facility.

SERVICES
Mechanical Engineering | Electrical Engineering


PROJECT FEATURES
Status: Completed 2012 | Disconnection and decommissioning of existing energy centre was achieved with no impact on day to day operations of existing hospital | Innovative design approaches resulted in cost reductions for energy centre


LOCATION 
Montréal, Québec


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
P3 | Steam, cooling, heating and emergency power services | A very complex power plant in a constrained space | Routing of steam piping designed to avoid interference with construction of P3 mega hospital  


Exterior of Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal
Interior of the energy centre Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal

SickKids Hospital

Digital Strategy and ICAT Roadmap

Project Horizon is a massive campus redevelopment that will transform the experience of patients and healthcare professionals, and enable the state-of-the-art healthcare facility to embrace new technologies and processes.

Angus Connect was engaged by the world-renowned paediatric clinical and research hospital to develop a comprehensive digital strategy and ICAT roadmap to support Project Horizon - New Patient Care Tower. This new facility is expected to be 22 stories on the existing SickKids campus in downtown Toronto, and to be integrated with the existing facilities. 

Angus Connect is developing the Digital Strategy, Vision and Guiding Principles in accordance with the Project Horizon Vision and SickKids’ Strategic Plan. This will culminate in an ICAT Roadmap, which will inform SickKids of current and upcoming technologies to support the delivery of patient care integrated with research and learning. Once complete, the Roadmap will include a high-level Implementation Plan and Budget for incorporation into SickKids’ Project Horizon Stage 2: Functional Program Submission, and to form the basis of future stages of Project Horizon. The outputs of our Design Program will inform the specifications for the project.

Project Horizon is a multi-year project with the objective to transform SickKids’ physical facilities in order to support the future delivery of paediatric care and address  myriad infrastructure deficiencies and limitations that impact quality and safety. The project will consist of the demolition of three buildings and the construction of two new buildings in a complex sequence that will span more than a decade before patients can be accommodated in the new facilities. With extensive experience delivering ICAT digital strategic plans for hospitals across Canada, our team is collaborating closely with SickKids to deep dive into the future of healthcare delivery and understanding their organizational needs today and those anticipated for the future in order to deliver a comprehensive and flexible ICAT roadmap to support Project Horizon. The team is also able to draw on HH Angus’ decades-long experience with large P3 healthcare design and construction projects. 

SERVICES
ICAT strategic visioning and planning


PROJECT FEATURES
Size: 22 stories on existing downtown campus | Status: Ongoing


LOCATION 
Toronto, Ontario


KEY SCOPE ELEMENTS
Comprehensive digital strategy and ICAT roadmap | Integration with existing facilities | High-level implementation plan and budget | Functional Program Submission | Jurisdictional Scan


Boy with broken arm and cast playing in hospital on a modern tv set.

Visioning for the future 

Angus Connect is providing SickKids with a Jurisdictional Scan of peer organizations from countries around the globe. We worked with our network of global partners (Subject Matter Experts) to understand and identify leading organizations in particular technologies and to make contacts. A market scan of the current and emerging technologies that will change the way healthcare is delivered in 10, 20 and 30 years was also developed as the basis for a Visioning Session with the Leadership Group. This includes concepts such as virtual care, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning and 4D printing.