Healthcare systems across Canada are experiencing parallel pressures: aging infrastructure, escalating construction and equipment costs, workforce shortages, and care models evolving faster than the facilities designed to support them. Bottlenecks in the healthcare system may manifest differently, but these challenges require shared innovative solutions across provinces and territories. It’s time to seize the opportunity with an “elbows-up” uniquely Canadian approach that brings together health leaders and experts in project design and health systems operations who are making a difference. Join Us!

This CCHF conference theme in Vancouver will focus on unlocking system capacity from various perspectives, including population health, standards and functional planning, procurement, project delivery cost controls, design that reflects evolving care models, systems-level changes that embed digital health, and more.

Conference Topics

• Understanding population health data to better cater to the health needs of the communities being served, and understanding how to leverage care facilities as an ecosystem of infrastructure rather than a singular build
• Unlocking system capacity with a ‘health hub” and spoke framework  that improves patient flow, connects facilities for various levels of care and their operations within an ecosystem of care
• Optimizing infrastructure through phasing and considering cost-effective approaches of renovation
• Embedded AI and digital health as a driver of improving system capacity – not just a digital add-on
• Case studies, including the recently completed Burnaby Redevelopment Project going LIVE this month, and planning and design considerations for integrating the newly applied alliance model and integrating indigenous health at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia
• Tour of Burnaby Phase 1
• Post Conference Sessions, May 6th

Post Conference Special Events 

9:00 – 12:00 PM Session: Long-Term Care at a Crossroads: Delivering Affordable Capacity in a Constrained Market

Rita Mezei, Executive Director, CCHF (Moderator)
Lisa Dawson, President, Independent Long-Term Care Councils Association of BC
Dan Levitt, Office of the Seniors Advocate
Mark Blandford, President and CEO, Providence Living
Scott McCarten, Vice-President, Capital Development, Providence Living
Diane Mackay, Chief Project Officer, Long-Term Care, Island Health
Mary Polak, CEO, BC Care Providers Association
Kirk Fisher, Lark Group, CEO

1:00 – 3:30 PM Session: Leadership Training: Breaking out of Silos: Leadership Thinking for Complex Healthcare Systems

An interactive session with led by Susanne Fox, that will walk you through mind shift and system level processes that will help to build stronger teams better equipped to work across organizations and to offer an opportunity to meet with peers in this exciting and productive session created just for the CCHF network. Join Us!

• Shift from siloed thinking to system thinking
• Explore how mindset influences decision-making in complex environments
• Generate new approaches to persistent challenges
• Build leadership capacity for collaboration across organizations
• Work more creatively within constraints rather than becoming limited by them

Background:

A single bottleneck does not constrain healthcare systems, but rather a series of interconnected constraints spanning facilities, workforce, operations, and care models. While funding and staffing challenges are significant, the design of our physical and operational healthcare ecosystem (comprising facilities and digital infrastructure) plays a decisive role in either alleviating or exacerbating congestion.

When planning, design and delivery are aligned with the core business of health systems – providing timely, appropriate care in the right setting – latent capacity can be unlocked. Intentional design reduces friction for patients and staff, improves flow and strengthens confidence in the system. Poorly aligned environments, by contrast, drain teams, fragment care, and create wide service gaps.

This two-day conference brings together healthcare owners, operators, architects, engineers, constructors and policy academics and leaders to examine the real pinch points constraining capital health capacity and to share practical strategies for building smarter, more resilient healthcare systems across Canada.

Conference Objectives:

• Explore capacity bottlenecks across healthcare systems and how they are being improved upon through health data analysis and using this to inform operational and process improvements, and the required health facilities to develop an ecosystem of care model
• How design and engineering optimizes the flow of patients, leveraging resources for better care outcomes
• Cross-provincial lessons in bringing projects to market faster through planning, procurement, and delivery that save time and money
• Understanding the right mix of standards dependent on the needs of the specific use of infrastructure through the planning process, so the project is not overbuilt
• Aligning facilities design with evolving models of care and workforce realities using digital health as an embedded strategy, not a digital ‘add-on.’
• Strengthening  collaboration between owners, designers, engineers and constructors, owners and communities using reconfigured health services closer to the community

Conference Agenda 

Day 1 – May 4, 2026

8:00 – 9:00 AM | Networking Breakfast

Network with your peers, enjoy a hot breakfast

9:00 – 9:15 AM | Opening Remarks

Welcome from the Conference Chair

Mike Hickey, CCHF Board Member

9:15 – 10:00 AM | Leveraging Infrastructure and Resources to Align with Increasing Healthcare Demands

This talk will lead with a compelling rationale for re-thinking structures and processes in healthcare. Then, governments’ priorities will set the stage for needed reforms across the delivery systems’ siloes. The talk will conclude with discussion of opportunities for reform in all sectors of healthcare delivery.

Dr. Jason Sutherland, Centre for Health Services and Policy (CHSPR), University of British Columbia, School of Population Health

10:00 – 10:30 AM | BREAK

10:30 – 11:15 AM | Rising to the Challenge: Identifying Opportunities in New Care Models to Meet Future Needs

Demand and cost increases over the next 20 years are projected to exceed what the Canadian healthcare system can accommodate in its current form. Addressing these pressures while preserving the nation’s commitment to universality will require major reforms in health service financing, organization, and delivery. Using population-based analysis, taking system and organizational perspectives, and raising facility planning implications, this session will describe how fast rising demands can be met with new care models. Given the high stakes, overcoming barriers and exercising effective leadership to incorporate bold changes into plans will be discussed.

Dr. Gavin Wardle, Partner, Preyra Solutions Group Consultants
Mélanie Potvin, Executive Lead, Planning and Business Development, Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, Ontario

11:15 AM – 12:00 PM | Facilitated Group Discussions from Acute Lens to System Design and Capital Alignment – Easing the pressure, improving care

• Redesigning the patient journey based on congestion points
• Identifying the misalignments
• Moving from the concept of ED being full to why does the ED exist as the default intake mechanism?

Facilitated by:
Dr. Gavin Wardle, Partner, Preyra Solutions Group Consultants
Mélanie Potvin, Executive Lead, Planning and Business Development, Hawkesbury and District General Hospital, Ontario

12:00 – 1:15 PM | LUNCH

1:15 – 2:00 PM | Integrating New Technologies into Planning and Design to Improve Space Utilization at Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (SHSC), Toronto, in partnership with HH Angus, is using near real-time occupancy intelligence to optimize new clinical fit-outs and existing infrastructure. The initiative began with pilot deployments in high-demand legacy spaces, where discreet sensors revealed underutilized areas, scheduling mismatches, and operational bottlenecks—enabling measurable improvements without major capital investment.

Building on this success, SHSC integrated 3D stereo-optic occupancy sensors into the Barzakay Brain Health Clinic and Cipriano Clinic. Connected to the Angus Remote Management System (ARMS), these sensors provide data on exam room utilization, peak demand, and scheduling trends. Findings show that even purpose-built clinics benefit from continuous occupancy intelligence, enabling more precise scheduling, improved patient flow, and better alignment of staff and space.

Together, these initiatives demonstrate a scalable, evidence-based approach to enhancing patient experience, optimizing resources, and future-proofing healthcare facilities.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Describe how near real-time occupancy data improves utilization in legacy and new spaces.
• Identify strategies for applying sensor-based analytics to support planning.
• Assess how occupancy intelligence enhances patient flow and resource alignment.

Akira Jones, Director, Digital Services, H.H. Angus Ltd.
Carol Robinson, Patient Care Manager, Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto (joining virtually)

2:00 – 2:45 PM | Panel: Connecting Digital Health to Capital Delivery: From Add-On to Foundational 

Digital health is no longer an add-on to healthcare facilities – it’s a foundational component that shapes how care is delivered,  experienced, and scaled. Yet across many projects, digital systems are still introduced too late in the capital planning and design process, resulting in misalignment, inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

We convened a panel of digital health experts directly involved in capital project delivery to explore how embedding digital from the start can unlock capacity, improve patient flow, and future-proof healthcare environments. Panellists will share real-world case studies and system-level insights, including:

• Sharing global leading-edge projects where Digital health is embedded from the “front door” of the hospital and demonstrating how integrated digital strategies are reshaping patient access, virtual care pathways and operational models
• Lessons from The Ottawa Hospital: Navigating Ontario’s project delivery frameworks while advancing digital health program integration
• Fraser Health Authority’s progress and successful embedding of digital services in the planning and design phases across a large complex regional system

Christine Chadwick, Managing Director, Canada, Archus (Moderator)
Hamidreza Eslami, Director, Data Science, Fraser Health Authority
Mathieu Lebreton, Interim Director – Biomedical Engineering & New Campus Development Digital Experience, The Ottawa Hospital
Jennifer MacGregor, President, Elewana Advisory

2:45 – 3:15 PM | BREAK

3:15 – 4:00 PM | VGH Campus Vision – Unlocking Capacity Through Phased Redevelopment

In response to capacity bottlenecks embedded in the campus that has evolved over 120 years, the redevelopment planning team for the Vancouver General Hospital explored numerous options to shape a carefully orchestrated plan for the future. The plan responds to a complex set of challenges, including a land-constrained site, aging infrastructure, a rapidly evolving surrounding community, the need to sustain uninterrupted patient care during redevelopment, alternative conservation approaches for a heritage-designated building, the reimagination of open-space provision, and the navigation of administrative and procedural bottlenecks – all aimed at unlocking the precinct’s latent capacity.

Abhishek Gupta, Principal, Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning Ltd
Shelly Fleck, Chief Clinical Planning Officer, Vancouver General Hospital and Lions Gate Hospital Major Capital Redevelopments; Operations Director, Vancouver Acute Perioperative Program, Vancouver Coastal Health

4:00 – 4:30 PM | Sutter’s Path: Patient access, people experience, and value-based care through design+building

Sutter health is the largest health system in Northern California, and is on the journey to expand, geography and strength. Their 40,000 people take care of 33 million patients, 1 in 100 Americans, 38 hospitals (and growing), and +300 ambulatory clinics (and growing) and multiple centers of excellence (also growing).

They are growing their way to strength: developing ambulatory footprint, digital tools, intentional use of AI, an integrated care continuum – all built on patient experience. While others cut, Sutter is building.

All of this is predicated on operational efficiency, rigor, and experience – we’ll get into the metrics in our time together.

Lindsey Dru, Operations Executive, Ambulatory Growth, Sutter Health

4:30 PM | Conference Close Day 1 

4:30-6:30 PM | Networking Reception at JW Parq Marriott

Day 2 – May 5, 2026

8:00 – 8:50 AM | Networking Breakfast

Network with your peers, enjoy a hot breakfast

8:50 – 9:00 AM | Welcome and Introductions

Welcome from the Chair

Mike Hickey, CCHF Board Member

9:00 – 10:15 AM | Panel: Where Do We Go From Here? Addressing Project Cost Control In Healthcare Projects

Susan will share a brief presentation of recent data on how healthcare capital projects across Canada compare to other costs for construction in other sectors of the economy.  Healthcare systems are facing unprecedented cost escalation, outpacing other sectors and placing significant strain on public funding, timelines, and system capacity.  Persistent bottlenecks –  from procurement inefficiencies and inflationary pressures to scope creep and misaligned planning assumptions – are delaying delivery and eroding value.

This panel brings together selected leaders from across the project lifecycle to examine the structural drivers behind rising costs and discuss practical system-level strategies to restore cost discipline. The discussion will challenge traditional delivery models and highlight opportunities to align planning, design, procurement and operations to enable more predictable, affordable and timely infrastructure healthcare capital projects.

Kieran McDonald, Partner, Agnew Peckham (Moderator)
Tariq Amlani, Senior Health Sector Leader, Canada, Stantec
Lindsey Dru, Operations Executive, Ambulatory Growth, Sutter Health
Scott McCarten,Vice-President, Capital Development and Business Development, Providence Living
Susan Neil, President, Hanscomb
Stephen Rowe, Health Director, Canada West, HDR Architecture Limited
Ian McDermott, Vice-President, Capital Projects and Business Development, Sinai Health, Toronto
Jeff Good, Vice-President, Alliance and Stakeholder Engagement, Infrastructure BC
Robin Latondresse, Senior Executive Director, Major Capital Projects, Provincial Health Services Authority

10:15 – 10:45 AM | BREAK

10:45 – 11:30 AM | Speed to Market for Health Infrastructure

Canadian healthcare organizations are increasingly challenged by capital escalation, aging infrastructure, and the limits of constrained urban hospital sites. Traditional redevelopment approaches, particularly phased expansion within active campuses, are becoming more complex, time-consuming, and difficult to deliver within budget.

This session explores patterns observed across urban hospital projects globally, where limited land, operational continuity, and growing program demands are reshaping planning strategies. Through precedents, the presentation highlights how these pressures lead to incremental growth, vertical expansion, and complex phasing.

Parkin will examine how established planning principles can amplify these challenges and explore examples illustrating a key shift in thinking, away compromising ideal clinical relationships by needing to respond to site and system constraints, pointing toward more a flexible, scalable, and timely delivery of healthcare infrastructure.

Melinda Lobo, Clinical Planner and Project Manager, Parkin Architects
John MacSween, Director, Parkin Architects

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | LUNCH

12:30 – 1:15 PM | Case Study: Planning for University Hospital of Northern British Columbia

Planning for the northern communities of BC has unique considerations, given that communities have unique needs and meeting location challenges. Learn from the planning and design leaders the approaches that will integrate communities’ care needs for generations.

Sherri Tillotson, Senior Clinical Planning Officer, Northern Health
Ronald B. McIntyre, Partner, Architect, DIALOG

1:15 – 2:00 PM | Change Management Through Spatial Design: Applying Workplace Strategy to Healthcare Transformation

Healthcare transformation extends beyond clinical and technological changes—it requires strategic integration of physical space as a powerful change management tool. This session demonstrates how healthcare executives can leverage workplace strategy and spatial design to accelerate organizational transformation while maintaining operational excellence, with particular focus on engaging both clinical staff and physicians who often resist mandated changes. Through JLL’s workplace transformation case study at George Brown College, participants will discover how proven spatial design methodologies translate directly to hospital and ambulatory care environments, creating spaces that naturally support new workflows and care delivery models rather than imposing disruptive change.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Understand the strategic timing and impact of workplace strategy in healthcare transformation, learning why early integration of spatial planning during the conceptualization phase enables alignment between physical environment decisions and broader organizational goals rather than costly retrofitting after facility commitments.
• Develop practical frameworks for stakeholder engagement and change management that address the distinct challenges of physician culture and independence, using spatial design as a compelling tool to demonstrate operational benefits and build advocacy rather than resistance among physician communities.
• Apply actionable implementation methodologies for conducting spatial needs assessments, sequencing changes to minimize care delivery disruption, and measuring quantifiable impacts on operational performance, staff satisfaction, physician engagement, and patient outcomes to justify continued investment in workplace strategy initiatives.

Ian McDermott, Vice President, Facilities and Capital Development, Sinai Health
Susan Chang, Executive Vice President, Workplace Design Advisory, JLL Design Americas

2:00 – 2:30 PM | BREAK

2:30 – 3:15 PM | Standards: Enabling or Constraining Our System Capacity? 

Standards play a key role in the safety, design and functionality of health environments. They provide a common reference point across Canada, with common space requirements for adjacencies, functional program elements, and patient, staff, and visitor safety considerations.  The panel will discuss their expert perspectives on the application of health design standards and future considerations for standards at the national and regional levels.

• Consistency in application of national standards and regional standards balance (over-standardized nationally but under-standardized provincially)
• Keeping up with more flexible care models,  and the impacts that can be unintentionally caused related to locking in inefficiencies
• How should standards be applied (community, virtual ambulatory) to support distributed care versus centralized infrastructure
• Standards versus innovation tension
• Are we over-applying standards to lower acuity environments, and what is the cost?

Gordon Burrill, Teegor Consulting Inc. (Moderator)
Westley Davidson, Chief Project Officer, Quw’utsun Valley Hospital/Quw’utsun Hulitun-ew’t-hw (Cowichan Hospital), Island Health
Craig Doerksen, Executive Director of Capital, Clinical Engineering & Facilities Management, Shared Health Manitoba
Ronald B. McIntyre, Partner, Architect, DIALOG

3:15 – 4:00 PM | Burnaby Hospital Redevelopment: Reducing bottlenecks without creating new constraints

Gather insights and lessons learned from across work streams on Phase I of the Burnaby Hospital Redevelopment project.

Anita Wempe, Chief Clinical Planner, Burnaby Hospital Redevelopment Project, Fraser Health Authority
Jessica Foster, Senior Leader, Operational Readiness & Strategic Change Management Burnaby Hospital Redevelopment Project, Fraser Health Authority

4:00 – 4:15 PM | Wrap Up / Conference Close

Delegates attending the tour should meet in the lobby with their bus tour lead. Ensure you have signed the CCHF liability form in advance of the excursion. The bus will leave at 4:30 sharp. The bus will depart the hospital no later than 6:45 PM.

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM | Guided TOUR @ Burnaby Hospital Redevelopment – Phase 1 (Transport Provided)

Note: Tour spots are limited to 50 people maximum and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Early registration is recommended.

Experience Phase 1 of Burnaby Hospital’s redevelopment—a project now delivering enhanced capacity and modernized care. Opened March 2026, the six-storey pavilion features 83 beds (primarily single-patient rooms), a mental-health inpatient unit with a secured outdoor patio, maternity and NICU units with dedicated family spaces, and a medicine unit equipped with negative-pressure rooms and outbreak zones.
The expanded support facilities building includes a larger emergency department with 23 new treatment spaces and a dedicated mental-health zone, six new operating rooms in the Jim Pattison Surgery Centre, and a state-of-the-art energy centre.
This tour offers a firsthand look at integrated design, infection control innovation, and scalable infrastructure—the first phase of a multi-year campus transformation.

Post-Conference May 6, 2026 (Tickets Sold Separately)

Round off your experience with our Post-Conference Events

Morning Session: Long-Term Care at a Crossroads: Delivering Affordable Capacity in a Constrained Market

Lisa Dawson, President, Independent Long-Term Care Councils Association of BC
Mark Blandford, President and CEO, Providence Living
Scott McCarten, Vice-President, Capital Development, Providence Living
Diane Mackay, Chief Project Officer, Long-Term Care, Island Health
Mary Polak, CEO, BC Care Providers Association
Dan Levitt, Office of the Seniors Advocate, BC “From Shortfall to Crisis Report”
Kirk Fisher, CEO, Lark Group

Afternoon Session: Breaking out of Silos: Leadership Thinking for Complex Healthcare Systems

Suzanne Fox, Fox Den Consulting

Conference Location:

JW Parq Marriott
39 Smith Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 0R3

Hotel Accommodations

*Important Hotel Note: Due to high demand coinciding with the FIFA World Cup, we strongly advise booking your accommodations as soon as possible to secure availability and rates.

A select number of rooms have been set aside for our out-of-town conference attendees at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver. To take advantage of our special room rates, reservations must be made by April 9th, 2026, by 12 PM noon PST. 

Online Booking: Use the dedicated reservation website: Book Now. Guests can make, modify, and cancel their hotel reservations through this link.

Phone Booking: Call 1-888-236-2427 or 1-801-468-4000 (for Marriott Bonvoy members) to reserve by phone.

Audience

• Healthcare leaders in Facilities & Redevelopment, Corporate Services, CEO, CFO’s
• Clinical Leads (CMIOs, Nursing, Medical leads)
• Capital Planning leaders and Project Directors
• ICAT / IMIT Leaders
• Design / Build Executives
• Constructors / Project Managers
• Consulting / Design Engineers
• Architects
• Planning Consultants
• Infection Control Professionals
• Quality and Patient Safety
• Occupational Health and Safety
• Capital Planners, Infrastructure Planners
• Hospital Service Providers
• Energy Services Companies
• Healthcare Vendors

Note: Speakers and topics may change based on their availability. CCHF makes every effort to publish only confirmed speakers.

Cancellation Policy

Fees are non-refundable. A colleague from the same organization may replace registrants if written notification is provided prior to the event. Note that CCHF does not guarantee all speakers. There may be substitutions due to availability or the need to make program changes. In the highly unlikely event of a program cancellation, CCHF will credit your company for the same value of the next event in your area.