The Ottawa Heart Institute has announced a major expansion to its facility; the most significant expansion of the Heart Institute since it opened in 1976. The $200-million dollar project will involve a new 5-storey building that will house cardiac catheterization, cardiac surgery and a cardiac surgery intensive care unit. This will add 147,000 square feet of space. In addition, the existing facility will be renovated to add approximately 59,000 square feet and to relocate and expand the cardiac imaging unit.
‘Our new facility will not only reinforce our cardiovascular care, research and training capacities,’ says Dr. Thierry Mesana, the President and CEO of the Heart Institute, ‘but it will also ensure that our patients continue to receive world-class care from an extraordinary team evolving in a state-of-the-art environment. This is our promise.’
The new building will add 1,582 catheterization lab procedures a year, 293 more electrophysiology procedures, 305 more surgeries with the addition of an operating room and six more cardiac surgery ICU beds.
The Ontario government has committed $162 million dollars to the project, with the remaining funds coming from fundraising efforts. PCL Constructors Canada has been awarded the contract to build the expansion and redevelopment project. Over the next four years, the project will create 150 jobs. Construction has already started and should be complete by the fall of 2019.
