WE ARE BUILT TO HEAL
The Teck Acute Care Centre at BC Children’s Hospital launches a new era of child health
The children of British Columbia now have an innovative, state-of-the-art hospital to complement the outstanding care BC Children’s Hospital has long been known for. The Teck Acute Care Centre is, literally, built to heal. Patients’ and their families’ entire journey—of body, mind and spirit—has been planned and designed in extraordinary detail.
It is said that it takes a village to raise a child; in this case, the entire province was onboard. With strong support from the Government of British Columbia and the Provincial Health Services Authority, BC Children’s Hospital Foundation undertook the largest hospital campaign in Canadian history to raise $200 million. The community responded and more than 80,000 British Columbians pledged their support. Through the campaign, we also established and funded Child Health BC (Lead Benefactor, Save-On-Foods) to ensure children have access to the best possible health care wherever they live in the province.
After the capital campaign concluded, we raised $6 million to establish the Children’s Healing Experience Project—the curating and procurement of purposeful artworks to provide positive distraction, inspire, educate, and promote healing. The majesty and splendor of British Columbia is reflected throughout the Teck Acute Care Centre, evoking a sense of home and depicting all corners of the province. The impetus for this landmark building is a novel approach to collaboration between clinicians, surgeons, patient families, hospital leadership, designers, builders and philanthropic donors. Together, they meticulously detailed every step of patients’ and their families’ hospital journey. The result is spectacular. Immediately, BC Children’s Hospital enhances its stature as a leading pediatric academic health centre in Canada and around the world. And this is just the beginning. During the years of planning and construction, there have been major advances in science and technology. Research capacity has grown exponentially and innovations in clinical care delivery are taking place that we could only have dreamed about five years ago. Every day we are moving closer to our vision: that every child is healthy and able to fulfill their hopes and dreams. The vision, ingenuity and collaboration at the heart of the Teck Acute Care Centre are indications of the infinite possibilities that lie ahead. Because these are our children, because this is our future, we believe everything can and must be possible. The Teck Acute Care Centre demonstrates the greater good that comes when government and communities galvanize to support excellence.