New St. Paul’s will offer larger rooms, high-tech

VANCOUVER – While the new St. Paul’s Hospital won’t be ready for several years, Providence Health Care has given the public a sneak peek into what the $2 billion facility will look like. Mock rooms of what the finished product will look were unveiled this month, showing the vast differences between what the new facility will offer compared to the aging building in the city’s West End.

When it opens, technological advances will be front and centre.

“There’s a tremendous amount of virtual health technology and integration going into rooms across the hospital that allows us to then broadcast locally – but even remotely, as well, and globally – for education purposes,” said Josh Chipperfield (pictured), senior project and change management leader.

Operating rooms will be 30 percent larger to give doctors and nurses the room they need to work.

“When you’ve got a nice sort of relatively square or rectangular room and it’s large enough, you can change the orientation within the room for different procedures, meet the needs of specific procedures and equipment that might come in, and with that space we can do that. Before, if we were hampered by space or even the shape of the room, it’s really tricky,” said Chipperfield.

He added that two of the new ORs will be hybrid rooms, which can support both interventional and traditional surgeries, along with the equipment needed for both types of procedures.

Critical care rooms will be bigger, too. In addition to being private, they will also have space for family to stay – even overnight.

In keeping with the trend toward patient-centric, digital hospitals, patients will be able to control the lighting and temperature. There will be digital displays of information in the rooms, and the equipment will be state-of-the-art.

The new St. Paul’s will have specialized rooms for mental health patients. They will be “extra safe” for these patients. For example, everything in the room will be tamper resistant, and patients can’t unscrew anything.

The current St. Paul’s Hospital, located on Burrard Street in Vancouver, first opened in the 19th century.

Providence Health Care, which operates the facility, notes it’s an acute care, teaching, and research hospital, “home to many world-class medical and surgical programs, including heart and lung services, HIV/AIDS, mental health, emergency, critical care, kidney care, elder care and numerous surgical specialties.”

The new hospital is set to open in 2027. It will be located near Station Street by the Pacific Central Train Station – about three kilometres from its current home. The facility will be built on an 18.4 acre site – nearly triple the size of the current lot.