St. Joseph's Health Centre receives more than 97,000 emergency room visits every year, and sees more than 272,000 visits in its outpatient ambulatory care clinics. More than 21,000 patients are admitted to a hospital bed every year, with an average stay of five to six days and an occupancy rate of 100%. Yearly, more than 3,000 children are born at St. Joseph's. Over 160,000 diagnostic imaging procedures are done every year and more than 30,000 surgeries.[1]
St. Joseph's is affiliated with the University of Toronto and accepts placement trainees in various specialties. Trainees are placed through U of T, and include students of other university medical programs. Over 800 trainees are placed at St. Joseph's and 200 faculty members at U of T. The medical education program is administered by the Department of Medical Education & Scholarship.[2] St. Joseph's also accepts nursing trainees from universities and colleges.[3]
The Women's, Children's and Family Health Program launched the St. Joseph's Urban Family Health Team (UFHT) at 27 Roncesvalles Ave.[4] The main focus of UFHT is to improve population health by focusing on chronic disease prevention and management. It offers patient education, health promotion, disease prevention and chronic disease management programs.
The Emergency Clinic is located on the west side of the hospital, on Glendale Avenue. It is a streamed clinic, with adults streamed into one clinic, and children into another. St. Joseph's wait times are regularly monitored by the Ontario Ministry of Health. In 2012, St. Joseph's Health Centre had one of the lowest wait times in Ontario to see a doctor. The Ambulatory Clinic is a day-time clinic for non-emergency visits for patients needing immediate medical attention. The Ambulatory Clinic is also located in the Glendale wing.
The original site at Sunnyside Avenue, and The Queensway, was the site of the 1800s Sunnyside Villa and farm, a home of John George Howard, surveyor of Toronto. The Sacred Heart Orphanage was built on the site, operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph order. In 1921, the City of Toronto was considering expropriating the orphanage for a public high school. The order decided to convert part of the orphanage into a hospital to prevent expropriation, and St. Joseph's was founded.[5]
In 1939, the Sisters of St. Joseph moved its Mercy Hospital for Incurables long-term care hospital to a new facility north of St. Joseph's Hospital proper. Known as Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, it operated independently until 1980, when it was merged with St. Joseph's Hospital. The Our Lady of Mercy Wing, as it was known, was demolished in 2007. In 2012, the replacement Our Lady of Mercy Wing opened. It is a 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) four-storey building housing a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a Paediatric Unit, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, an expanded Family Birthing Centre, and three new inpatient areas housing a total of 92 beds.
1921 - St. Joseph's Hospital was founded in 1921 on the site of the Sacred Heart Orphanage. Renovations were undertaken and by 1925 St. Joseph's had become a modern 112-bed facility.[7]
1925 - Mercy Hospital for Incurables opens on Sackville Street in downtown Toronto.[8]
1931 - East Wing was built in 1931, raising bed capacity to 300. The addition gave the hospital modern emergency facilities and included operating rooms and obstetrical facilities.
1935 - Sunnyside Wing West constructed to accommodate nursing students.
1939/40 - Mercy Hospital opens in new facility as Our Lady of Mercy Hospital, north of St. Joseph's on Sunnyside Avenue.[8]
1949 - Frederick Morrow Wing opens, increasing bed capacity up to 600 and supplying much needed administrative space.
1960 - Glendale Wing opens, increasing the bed capacity only slightly, but providing much needed administrative and service areas and several new departments.
