Planning for Our Future with a Made-in-Muskoka Healthcare Solution

The past year has been an exciting progression of Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare’s capital redevelopment planning to replace our aging hospital sites in Bracebridge and Huntsville with two new hospitals in the future.

Just last week we announced the future location where we plan to build a new hospital in Bracebridge. Also in December, we were encouraged by Infrastructure Ontario’s December 2023 Market Update that indicates our redevelopment project could officially start with contract execution in 2029.

We are fortunate to have the financial commitment of our local communities, the Ministry of Health and our Hospital Foundations to build the best future for health care for everyone we serve. These milestones are all great news to demonstrate our project is on track!

Planning the programs and services for our new hospitals in the future has been an iterative process over the past several months. It has given us opportunity to consider changes in the healthcare environment, advances in technology, and how we could continue to transform Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare that will ensure a sustainable healthcare system for decades to come. One that will position us to expand services to our communities and solve current challenges, some recently amplified by the pandemic such as ongoing staff shortages that contribute to frequent service disruptions.

More than 250 subject matter experts (staff, credentialed staff, volunteers, patient experience partners, hospital leaders and key healthcare partners) have gathered together as User Groups to explore different service delivery models. They have been working to define the future scope of programs and services and projected future volumes, and identify opportunities to leverage technology and improve their workflow while also looking at how we can close existing gaps in service.

As we worked through our planning process, it became clear this past fall with preliminary costing of new hospitals that replicating the existing status quo model is not viable. With drastic cost inflation that has driven healthcare building costs up nearly 50% in just the last year, it’s crucial that we develop an affordable future, not only in what we build but also in how we operate services to end repeated annual budget deficits.

Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare is committed to a creative solution for the future that looks forward instead of back with new hospitals that are built green and are flexible in design. Where our two sites are complementary to each other rather than identical, both providing 24/7 Emergency Department care, and inpatient beds tailored to how we will provide care in the future.

Together, we are investing in and building Made-in-Muskoka Healthcare and through innovation and partnerships we will expand the healthcare services we can provide both within and beyond our walls to bring care closer to home in outlying areas of the region.

User Groups are still working through the final pieces of a Made-in-Muskoka Healthcare solution to meet the needs of Muskoka and area decades from now and ensure our hospitals survive and thrive. As that work wraps up, I am looking forward to sharing the details later this month of how we will deliver Made-in-Muskoka Healthcare to all our communities; healthcare that is focused on excellence, quality care and long-term sustainability for the next 40 and 50 years.