North York General Hospital

Toronto, Ontario

In June 2005, kick off meetings were held for an important project to expand the medical imaging capabilities of North York General Hospital in Toronto Ontario. In March 2006, one month ahead of schedule, North York General reopened their new medical imaging department. Serving a population of over 400,000 people in south central Ontario, the hospital now hopes to deliver many of the province's 105,200 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) exams using the new MRI machines and upgraded facility at North York General Hospital.

North York General Hospital is a four-site community teaching hospital serving the people of north central Toronto and Southern York Region in Ontario. As part of the Ontario government's focus on reducing wait times and improving patient outcomes in the region, North York General underwent a major renovation and expansion project to expand its medical imaging capabilities. In June 2005, GE Electrical Distribution was selected to deliver the complete electrical distribution solution for this critical hospital project. Together, with Ainsworth Inc., a Toronto-based electrical contractor who has served the Canadian market for over 65 years, GE supplied a customized electrical power distribution package to meet the unique needs of this hospital expansion project.

The North York General Hospital renovation required extensive upgrades to the hospital's existing power system to meet the expanded power requirements. GE supplied a customized double-ended switchboard to meet the additional power needs, while also providing for future power expansion. The fourteen month project involved major renovations to the existing diagnostic imaging facility in the hospital's main site; the existing area was renovated to make way for the required GE power equipment, new exam rooms, and new medical imaging equipment, including several new MRI machines and Computed Tomography (CT) scanners. In addition to providing essential power for the hospital's mission critical medical equipment, GE also provided Automatic Transfer Switches to allow stand-by generators to supply power to normal loads during peak power utility periods without any compromise to the hospital's emergency power system.

Together with electrical contractor Ainsworth Inc., GE Electrical Distribution implemented a complete electrical solution consisting of GE Switchboards,GE Panelboards, GE Transformers, GE Disconnect Switches and GE Lighting. This complete electrical solution was designed to deliver a continuous supply of power to the new facility and to ensure critical electric equipment were properly isolated from one another.

To help North York General Hospital participate in Toronto Hydro's Conservation and Demand Management initiatives, GE and Ainsworth Inc. installed GE Automatic Transfer Switches with remote monitoring and control of the transfer switch, timers, and available sources on existing stand-by generators. The GE solution ensures high reliability and ease of operation while delivering complete remote monitoring and control capabilities of peak-shaving equipment while delivering normal power needs to the hospital.

As explained by Ajay Gupta, Lead Account Manager, GE Consumer & Industrial,
"Power systems for hospital projects tend to be extremely complex. Because the hospital was expanding to deliver more diagnostic services on very expensive and sensitive MRI and CT equipment, GE needed to provide an electrical distribution solution that would both fit the physical design and unique power needs of the facility while protecting the equipment. We were successful in manufacturing the right system as per the stringent technical specifications and deliver the entire project on time and on budget."

The expansion of the North York General Hospital medical imaging facility was a hugely successful project. The team of GE Electrical Distribution and Ainsworth Inc. worked exceptionally well together to deliver the facility upgrade on time and on budget. As Paul Beekman, Project Manager Commercial and Medical said, "We were confident in our selection of the electrical distribution products from GE for this important project. The GE products were an excellent fit for this facility. GE's expertise in manufacturing to fit the physical specifications of the new facility and the special disconnects to address the unique power supply needs was excellent. GE Electrical Distribution was a great partner for this critical hospital project."

To summarize the overall hospital facility upgrade Ajay Gupta, Lead Account Manager, GE Consumer & Industrial said, "GE Electrical Distribution is pleased to have been selected to be part of the team for the North York General Hosptial expansion project. It's exciting to be part of a project that is having such an impact on the lives of so many Canadians. GE Electrical Distribution has a great solution for these sensitive electrical distribution projects and now with the opening of the Canadian Assembly Centre here in Southern Ontario we look forward to being part of many more successful Canadian healthcare projects in the future."

North York General Hospital, Toronto Ontario