The former Salvation Army Grace Maternity Hospital, has been caring for BC families starting in 1927 at its original location at Heather Street and West 27th Avenue. Both Grace Hospital and Vancouver General Hospital's Willow Pavilion Maternity care moved to the current location at 4500 Oak Street in 1982 and shared the campus with BC Children's Hospital and Shaughnessy Hospital. It provides health services that address the health needs of women of all ages and backgrounds. Women's is the largest maternity hospital in Canada with over 7,000 babies delivered every year. Women's provides a combination of acute care services such as HIV/AIDS care and treatment, abortion and sexual assault services for women throughout the province and basic health care services such as breast health checks for women in the Lower Mainland. It provides training for providers across the province. Following the closure of Shaughnessy Hospital in 1993, The Salvation Army withdrew administration in 1994 and the facility was renamed BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre. Under the Provincial Health Services Authority, BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre has a mandate to serve women, babies and their families across B.C. Only 43 percent of patients reside in the Lower Mainland, while 57 per cent of patients live in other areas of B.C. With many specialized women's health services not available anywhere else in the province, BC Women's treats over 68,000 patients each year. On October 25, 2006, Felicia Simms delivered conjoined twins at BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre. They are believed to be the first ever conjoined twins born in British Columbia. Canada's first set of sextuplets, four boys and two girls, were born at the hospital on January 6 and 7, 2007. They were in the 25th week of gestation when born, or approximately 3 months premature. In 2014, construction began on the new Teck Acute Care Centre, a $676 million project in three phases to build "an eight-storey facility, approximately 59,400 square metres in size. The facility will be designed to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold standard and include extensive use of wood, consistent with the Province of B.C.'s Wood First Act." The building "will be a bright, modern facility with single-occupant patient rooms, access to natural light and gardens. It includes...a high-risk labour and delivery suite and a new neonatal intensive care unit for BC Women's Hospital + Health Centre." On October 29, 2017 The Teck Acute Care Centre, which had been built by Balfour Beatty, was officially opened.
Specializations and services
Its specialists and staff:
deliver approximately 7,000 babies per year
provide high risk maternity care
operate with 85 antepartum/postpartum beds, including 29 high risk beds, plus 9 delivery suites and 10 neonatal care nursery beds
support low-risk mothers and families in 7 new single room maternity care rooms
provide care for more than 42,500 in-patients visits each year
As a Health Centre, BC Women's provides care and treatment to over 19,000 outpatients each year through women's health services including:
The Oak Tree Clinic: Women & Children with HIV/AIDS
Breast Health Program
Reproductive Health
Heartwood Centre — A 27-bed residential addiction treatment & rehab program
Aboriginal Health Program
Sexual Assault Program
Continence Program
Midwifery Program
Integrated Gynecological Surgical Daycare
The Foundation
BC Women's Hospital & Health Centre Foundation supports the capital equipment, diagnostic, patient care, research and education needs of the hospital and health centre through fund-raising, planned giving and corporate partnerships. Aurora Centre closed in August 2011. There is a new Heartwood program in its place.
