MIS Community Connection Segment - Rogers Television

Last month, York Central Hospital Foundation had the privilege of collaborating with Rogers Television York Region to produce a segment for Community Connection on Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS).

The segment features MIS Surgeon Dr. Rohan Shahani, York Central Hospital Foundation President & CEO Bill Leacy and John Jenah, President of the Paul B. Helliwell Foundation. The Paul B. Helliwell Foundation was the lead donor in both of York Central Hospital’s MIS Suites.

Click here to view this educational segment.

Thank you to Rogers Television for allowing us the opportunity to showcase some of York Central's services to our community and recognize our incredible donors!

To find out how you can help support health care in our community, please email foundation@yorkcentral.on.ca or call 905-883-2032.

Inspirational Gift - Elson and Joyce Miles

Retired farmers Elson and Joyce Miles have a long history of giving back to the community and this past year was no exception.

Recently, they supported York Central Hospital Foundation in a financially savvy way by donating shares to fund priority equipment projects. By transferring their shares intact, they helped to purchase life-saving medical equipment and avoided paying capital gain tax.

“Having lived in York Region our entire lives and seen the dramatic changes that have taken place, we understand how important community support is for our hospital,” they said. “It gives us great pleasure knowing we are playing a part in York Central’s efforts to improve health care for the people in our community.” 

Their gift helped to fund three priority projects: Minimally Invasive Surgery, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Patient Pump Project.

Last night, Elson and Joyce were honoured in a donor recognition ceremony at York Central Hospital. More than 20 past and present Board members, spouses, volunteers, hospital and Foundation staff and family members attended the momentous event. There were many laughs, memories and stories shared about the couple’s long history with the Foundation as well as their involvement in the community.

Speakers included York Central Hospital President & CEO, along with three physicians who spoke about each priority project and the impact of Elson and Joyce’s gift. Stan Neal, a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors and the colleague who recruited Elson to the Foundation more than 20 years ago, spoke of their history, dedication and vision along with a few personal stories. Dr. Nicholas Voudouris, Chair of the Board of Directors, ended the speeches by thanking the couple and presenting them with a card.

The rest of the event was filled with reminiscing, a lot of laughter and photos.

In addition to being generous donors, Elson and Joyce have been involved in the Foundation for more than 20 years. Elson has served as a Board Member and held a number of executive positions including Chair of the Board. He also played a pivotal role in the $35 million Share The Spirit of Care campaign by chairing the Steering Committee.

Their involvement in the community is equally impressive. Elson was a member and past president of the Markham Pizza Project, a school-based agricultural program. He was also president of the Unionville Home Society and served the Town of Markham as a councillor. Joyce has been involved with church choirs since she was a teenager and led her own choir “Cache Chorale” for 18 years, retiring in 2010. Today, she helps out by playing the organ for occasional weddings and funerals at the Presbyterian Church in old Markham.

Thank you Elson and Joyce for your continued support and commitment to health care in Southwest York Region! The world is truly a better place with community-minded volunteers like both of you.

President's Corner - Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite

February is more than half over and that means the grand opening of our newest priority project is around the corner!

Construction began on our second Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite in this month, and is expected to be finished in the spring.

Minimally Invasive Surgery reduces patients’ pain, decreases recovery time, helps to improve wait times for surgical care and overall improves patient outcomes and satisfaction.

Our first MIS, The Paul B. Helliwell Foundation MIS Suite, was opened in September 2009 and our team of established MIS surgeons is able to provide a broad range of MIS laparoscopic services including:

·     Adrenalectomy – the removal of cancerous adrenal glands

·     Percutaneous nephrolithotomy – removal of kidney stones

·     Laparoscopic nephrectomy – removal of all or part of an infected or cancerous kidney

·     Laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH)

·     Laparoscopic abdominal hysterectomy (LAH)

·     Colon and rectum resection for benign and malignant disease

·     Gastrectomy

·     Hartman’s procedure and reversal of Hartman’s procedure – emergency procedure for a perforated bowel

·     Hernia repair

·     Splenectomy –removal of a diseased or damaged spleen

·     Thoracoscopy – internal examination of the pleural cavity (the body of cavity that surrounds the lungs

York Central Hospital is one of a few hospitals in the province that has such a complement of general surgeons with fellowship level training and the skills to perform advanced MIS procedures.  As a group, we are performing among the highest volumes of laparoscopic colon resections in the GTA.  As well, we are a provincial leader in MIS for colon cancer surgery. 

With this success come challenges. Simply, we do not have enough time available to schedule all the surgeries in one MIS Suite.  Moreover, to help York Central Hospital move closer to fulfilling our vision of becoming the finest community hospital in Canada, we are expanding our MIS services to include urology and gynaecology which will help patients suffering from prostate or bladder cancer and fibroid tumors.

With a second MIS Suite, operating room turnover, operative times, physical burden on nurses, team morale and overall efficiency will be improved which will add to these savings.  In addition, a second MIS will help our ability to attract top notch surgeons and retain our expert nurses and allied health professionals.

Perhaps most importantly, the impact on the patients will be outstanding.

The total costs for a second MIS Suite are estimated to be $525,000. If you are interested in helping us fund this vital initiative, please email me. Together, we can improve health care for residents in Southwest York Region.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO

President's Corner - Welcome

Welcome to York Central Hospital Foundation’s newest communication venue: social media!

Through my posts on President’s Corner, I’ll be able to provide you with an inside look at the Foundation while providing updates on YCH advances in patient care and links to interesting fundraising articles. 

The past few months have been exciting to say the least, especially with the completion of a long anticipated project: our new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

On December 14, 2010 we officially opened the new unit, and what an exciting day it was. Donors and staff were treated to a tour of the new unit by Dr. Gerald Friedman, Chief of Paediatrics at York Central Hospital (YCH), followed by the official opening ceremonies, held in the Berwick Family Auditorium.

The new NICU will eventually have the capacity to care for twice as many of our tiniest and most vulnerable patients as the old unit.

 Saying “thank you” just wouldn’t be enough to our donors, especially our largest, the Volunteer Association of York Central Hospital, who contributed $1 million to this vital project. Association President Pat Young spoke on behalf of the Volunteers at the opening ceremony and thanked each and every volunteer for their dedication and support for this project and many others.

Additionally, thanks to our most successful gala in our history, we provided the hospital with the funding required to purchase a state-of-the-art Nuclear Medicine Camera. This camera greatly improves the detection and visualization of many disease processes and operates 50% faster, and uses 50% less radiation. 

While we’ve had a great end to the year, I can’t help but get excited about what’s to come in the following months as we continue to improve patient care through philanthropy. Construction has begun on our second Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS) Suite dedicated to Urology and Gynaecology and is expected to be completed in the spring. This will mean even more patients will experience less post-operative discomfort, smaller incisions and faster healing times.

We have yet to reach our fiscal year-end goal, but I’m hopeful through the generous support of our community and donors like you, we’ll be able to exceed even our own expectations and fulfill our obligation of funding life-saving medical equipment and technology to YCH.

I look forward to keeping you connected and helping the hospital achieve its vision to “be the finest community hospital in Canada”.

Wishing you the best of health,

Bill Leacy

President & CEO