A new $20 million seniors’ rehabilitation center officially opened Monday in Sudbury, Ontario, in a ceremony attended by Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones.

The St-Joseph Continuing Care Center, Lasalle site, will welcome 36 patients in the coming days. A second phase of the center, scheduled to open at the end of 2025, will provide 36 additional beds.

These patients, all of whom are elderly people in need of rehabilitation services, were previously staying in part of the city’s Clarion Hotel, which was converted for this purpose at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We knew there would be a surge of COVID patients requiring acute care,” said Kari Gervais, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health Center.

“We therefore worked very closely with our partners at Health Sciences North and Ontario Health to identify an alternative solution for patients who did not really need acute care, but who still needed hospital care .

The Clarion Hotel welcomed these patients.

Gervais said the facility quickly transitioned from a site for alternate level of care (ALC) patients – who do not need acute care hospital beds – to a rehabilitation site.

“We had so many patients who needed rehabilitation that we transformed the eligibility criteria to accommodate people who needed rehabilitation, rather than waiting for them in an acute care bed for rehabilitation,” he said. she declared.

John Roininen, a former St. Joseph Health Center board member, said his 93-year-old mother was among the patients admitted to the Clarion site when she broke her hip and right arm .

“We were a little disappointed,” he said. “We were hoping to end up at the nicer site on South Bay Road.”

But Roininen said the staff at the site was excellent and helped her mother regain her mobility, even though an orthopedic surgeon told her she might never walk again.

Many of these staff members have now been transferred to the purpose-built rehabilitation site on Lasalle Boulevard.

“We have a complete interdisciplinary team here,” Gervais said.

“So, in addition to the doctors who are on site daily, we also have occupational therapists, physiotherapists, recreational therapists, speech therapists, in addition to nurses, of course.”

Provincial funding

For the first phase, the Ontario Ministry of Health covered 90 per cent of the nearly $20 million price tag needed to build the center.

St. Joseph Health Center must raise funds for the remaining $2 million. Gervais said he has received $500,000 in charitable donations so far.

The second half of the building is expected to be completed late next year.

Gervais says St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Center is the only dedicated rehabilitation hospital for seniors in northeastern Ontario.