Cowichan District Hospital development

The new Cowichan District Hospital reflects the Province’s vision for public health-care that puts patients, families and communities at the centre of care decisions. This model integrates services across the continuum of care, and shifts non-acute care out of hospitals, bringing services closer to people in their communities.

The vision puts as much focus on helping people to stay healthy, address episodes of minor acute illness and better manage their chronic illnesses, as on providing high-quality critical and acute care services when they are very sick, supported by technological innovation. The project builds on our care providers’ long-standing commitment to delivering seamless, patient-centred health services to people across Cowichan communities.

The hospital will offer an integrated care model by blending Island Health’s hospital-based services with the myriad of primary care and community-based health services and support programs, both on the new site and in the broader community, in partnership with other service providers working in the region.

By connecting emergency, surgical and acute, hospital-based care with community and primary care, the new Cowichan District Hospital will enable smoother transitions for patients at home, in the community or in the hospital — wherever their needs are best met. This coordination will help healthy people stay healthy, while providing high-quality care when they are very sick. It will also result in reduced wait times, better quality care, better health outcomes, a better experience for our patients and their families and improved value for health-care dollars.