CHEO launches 10-year development plan for Ottawa location

CHEO is embarking on a 10-year, $818 million redevelopment plan for its Ottawa facility, which includes expanding the emergency department, renovating operating rooms and creating more mental health spaces.

As the children’s hospital celebrates its 50th anniversary, CHEO has unveiled expansion plans to better meet the needs of children and youth now and in the future.

“The needs of children and youth today have changed significantly since we opened our doors in 1974,” said Alex Munter, CHEO President and CEO, in a statement. “As a result, we must rethink and adapt our space to meet the needs of a growing population of children and youth.”

CHEO says that to make room for the expansion, work is underway on a new parking garage and construction has begun on a new tunnel that will connect the Integrated Treatment Center for children with physical and developmental disabilities.

Other projects at CHEO during the 10-year redevelopment plan include:

• Create more mental health spaces and ‘improve them to address the mental health crisis in our region’
• Expansion of key areas such as Emergency Department, Medical Imaging and Pharmacy
• Adding more beds and outpatient clinics, including a new intensive care Step Down Unit for patients who are improving but not yet ready for the medical or surgical wards
• Improving diagnostic capabilities, expanding newborn screening and enabling more groundbreaking research through the construction of advanced laboratories
• Operating rooms are being renovated to ‘enable the latest surgical techniques’
• Modernization of research space to improve pediatric care outcomes

The redevelopment project is being funded through fundraising and funding from the Ontario government. CHEO’s main campus previously added two wings in the early 2000s.

“CHEO is writing an exciting new chapter in its history, expanding our ability to care for the next generation of children and young people,” Munter said.