Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre (VHHSC) is an acute care hospital affiliated with the University of British Columbia and located in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The VHHSC is the second largest hospital in Canada, with 1,900 beds and nearly 116,000 patients each year. VHHSC employs 9500 staff and utilizes 1000 volunteers. As of 2005, the hospital's annual budget is $463 million. It is managed by

Vancouver Coastal Health Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is a regional health authority that provides health services including primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary care, home and community care, mental health services, population and preventive health and addictio ...

History

The Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre was formed in 1993 when

Vancouver General Hospital Vancouver General Hospital (locally known as VGH, or Vancouver General) is a medical facility located in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is the largest facility in the Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre (VHHSC) group of medical faciliti ...

merged with

UBC Hospital UBC Hospital is a health care facility located on the University Endowment Lands in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It opened in 1968, and is now operated by Vancouver Coastal Health. Overview UBC Hospital is made up of three different build ...

to operate as one entity on two sites. In 1995, the GF Strong Rehab Centre and

George Pearson Centre George Pearson Centre is a Nursing home care, long term residential care facility located in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, and is currently owned and operated by Vancouver Coastal Health. George Pearson Centre was named ...

merged with the VHHSC. In the spring of 1997, the VHHSC merged with the BC Rehab Society and the clinical component of the Arthritis Society, BC & Yukon Division. At this point, VHHSC operated at 5 sites. In 2001, the ownership and operation of VHHSC entities (Vancouver General Hospital, UBC Hospital, George Pearson Centre and G.F. Strong Rehab Centre) was assumed by the

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is a regional health authority that provides health services including primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary care, home and community care, mental health services, population and preventive health and addictio ...

Facilities

VHHSC includes the primary referral, teaching & research hospital in the province and has strong ties with the Faculty of Medicine at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. Vancouver Hospital and Health Sciences Centre is composed of two sites:

and

. VHHSC has neither

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

nor

pediatrics Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until th ...

specialties. These are handled at the nearby BC Women's Hospital and Health Centre and

BC Children's Hospital British Columbia Children's Hospital is a medical facility located in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority. It specializes in health care for patients from birth to 16 years of age (possibly lo ...

, respectively.

Vancouver General Hospital

is the largest hospital in the VHHSC and the second largest hospital in Canada.

UBC Hospital

The UBC Hospital, located on the

University Endowment Lands The University Endowment Lands (UEL) is an unincorporated area that lies to the west of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and adjacent to the University of British Columbia and the lands associated with that campus. Pacific S ...

adjacent to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, opened in 1968. Units include; the Acute Care Unit, Surgical Observation Unit and Urgent Care Centre in Koerner

Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

, the Extended Care Unit and Transitional Care Unit in Purdy Pavilion, and the Psychiatric Unit in Detwiller Pavilion. Specialty areas at UBC Hospital include:

acute medicine Acute medicine is a specialty within internal medicine concerned with the immediate and early specialist management of adult patients with a wide range of medical conditions who present in hospital as emergencies. It developed in the United Kingdom ...

general surgery General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on alimentary canal and abdominal contents including the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and bile ducts, and often the thyroid ...

, reconstructive

orthopedic surgery Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternatively spelt orthopaedics), is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

and

gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". The fie ...

. UBC Hospital has eight operating rooms (including two for the Centre for Surgical Innovation) and 800 staff including 270 physicians and 450 nurses. Patients make approximately 28,000 clinic visits to the hospital, to clinics such as the Bladder Care Centre, Movement Disorders/Parkinson's Clinic, Sleep Disorders Program, Multiple Sclerosis Clinic, the Clinic for Alzheimer Disease and Cognitive Disorders, Breast Reconstruction Program, Mood Disorders Centre and the Operational Stress Injury (OSI) clinic. The Centre for Surgical Innovation at UBC Hospital, a provincial specialty centre featuring two new operating rooms and 38 inpatient beds, opened in April 2006. Approximately 1600 hip and knee replacement surgeries are performed each year. The UBC Hospital Urgent Care Centre offers specancialized treatment for non-life-threatening emergencies by emergency trained physicians and nurses. UBC Hospital Urgent Care Centre treat things such as; allergies, asthma, broken bones, cuts that need stitches, eye problems, fevers, flus, IV therapy, minor burns, nosebleeds, skin infections and sprains. The Urgent Care Centre also offers a range of diagnostic services and testing including X-rays, blood tests, Ultrasound, CT scans and ECGs. The Urgent Care Centre is open daily from 8 am to 10 pm. Appointments are not necessary. The centre handles approximately 17,000 visits every year. Also located at UBC Hospital is the Brain Research Centre, a partnership of the UBC Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. The Brain Research Centre comprises more than 200 investigators with multidisciplinary expertise in neuroscience research ranging from the test tube, to the bedside, to industrial spin-offs. The

National Core for Neuroethics The National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia was established in August 2007, with support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Institute of Mental Health and Addiction, the Canada Foundation for Innovati ...

, a research-based facility, is also based at UBC Hospital.

GF Strong Rehab Centre

G.F. Strong Centre was part of VHHSC from 1995 to 2001. It is located in Vancouver's Fairview neighbourhood. It is British Columbia's largest

rehabilitation Rehabilitation or Rehab may refer to: Health * Rehabilitation (neuropsychology), therapy to regain or improve neurocognitive function that has been lost or diminished * Rehabilitation (wildlife), treatment of injured wildlife so they can be retur ...

centre and provides services in four main areas:

acquired brain injury Acquired brain injury (ABI) is brain damage caused by events after birth, rather than as part of a genetic or congenital disorder such as fetal alcohol syndrome, perinatal illness or perinatal hypoxia. ABI can result in cognitive, physical, ...

spinal cord injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

and neuromusculoskeletal. It also has specialized programs for adolescents and young adults. The centre opened in 1949 and was named after Dr. George Frederick Strong. It has about 800 employees.

George Pearson Centre

The

was part of VHHSC from 1995 until 2001. Located in the

Marpole Marpole, originally a Musqueam village named , is a mostly residential neighbourhood of 23,832 in 2011, located on the southern edge of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, immediately northeast of Vancouver International Airport, and is approx ...

neighbourhood in the south of Vancouver, is a home for 110-120 adults with severe disabilities. The centre opened in 1952 as a long-term care facility for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

patients and joined the VHHSC in 1995. The Marpole Women's Auxiliary, established in 1938 to support the Marpole Infirmary which later moved to George Pearson Centre in 1965, continues to support the residents of the centre.

References

{{authority control Hospitals in British Columbia University of British Columbia Teaching hospitals in Canada Hospitals established in 1993 1993 establishments in British Columbia