Bloorview Strategic Plan 2007-12

strategicplan

infinite possibilities 2007 to2012

BLOORVIEW’S NEW STRATEGIC PLAN STRIVES TO PROVIDE: Improved quality of life for kids and their families Enhanced access to knowledge and information Better outcomes for kids with disabilities Improved access to services

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

Executive Summary

Bloorview has developed our Infinite Possibilities 2007-2012 Strategic Plan to bring focus to our ambitious goal of becoming a global leader in improving the lives of children and youth with disabilities and their families.

This Strategic Plan will inspire us to take a leap forward in the field of childhood disability, reinforcing our commitment to providing specialized health care services to children and youth with disabilities in Ontario, as reflected in our mission and outlined in our annual Operating Plan. The new Strategic Plan identifies five priority areas in which Bloorview will go above and beyond our mission to create a world of possibilities for children with disabilities.

We will build on our commitment to and passion for client and family-centred care. Our commitment comes with the understanding that best practices in this area are always evolving, and a desire to stay at the forefront of advancing the practice of client and family-centred care.

The strategic priorities represent a significant intensification of Bloorview’s role as an academic health sciences centre, specifically in the areas of research and teaching in pediatric rehabilitation. Our plan provides the impetus to research, evaluate and implement new approaches to treatment, challenge assumptions, as well as discover and create new technology. This will ensure children with disabilities everywhere will face fewer barriers, have better access to the best care possible and live the best and most satisfying life possible. Building on a strong foundation of academic teaching and research, Bloorview will continue to set the standard for clinical excellence in childhood disability.

Strategic Priorities: • Establishing Centres for Leadership in Child Development and Participation • Enhancing the Output and Impact of Research • Innovating and Excelling in Teaching and Learning • Creating a Knowledge Hub for Childhood Disability • Leading System Change and Integration and Improving Access to Services

Building on a foundation of excellence in clinical care, research and education, we will address gaps in the childhood disability system to ensure improved quality of life for children with disabilities and their families.

Help us shape the future for children with disabilities and their families. The possibilities are endless!

Bloorview Kids Rehab

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About Bloorview

Bloorview Kids Rehab is Canada’s largest pediatric rehabilitation and complex continuing care teaching hospital, fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. Bloorview’s work covers the full spectrum from clinical care and treatment, to assistive technologies and rehab therapies, to creative arts, education and research.

With over 100 years of history, Bloorview’s reputation is based on compassionate, innovative, thoughtful and dependable care and services for our clients. In many ways, Bloorview is the gold standard for excellence in pediatric rehab. Our clients consistently rate Bloorview’s care as excellent. This is the heart of what we do, and our commitment to providing the best client and family-centred care possible is unwavering.

How did we get to where we are today?

The past five years have been monumental at Bloorview, and in turn, for children with disabilities and their families receiving care and treatment here. It cannot go unnoticed that Bloorview’s activity levels and metrics have changed significantly since we did our last situational analysis for the Maximizing our Potential 2003 – 2008 Strategic Plan.

Milestones achieved: Between 2002-2007, Bloorview: • Became the first pediatric rehabilitation teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.

• Created the Bloorview Research Institute, building on a long history of applied research, to formalize our research role in the health care field.

• Moved into a new state-of-the-art facility, that brought all of Bloorview’s programs and services under one roof for the first time in over 100 years of collective history.

• Successfully completed our $45 million fundraising campaign – the largest ever for Bloorview – to support the creation of the new facility.

• Consolidated the Child Development programs from Bloorview and SickKids at Bloorview.

With this foundation laid, we are poised to create a world of possibility for kids with disabilities.

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

VISION A World of Possibility

MISSION Bloorview Kids Rehab provides specialized programs and clinical care for children and youth with rehabilitation and complex care needs to enable them to participate in life to the fullest.

We are Canada’s leading pediatric rehabilitation teaching hospital, dedicated to being at the forefront of clinical care, research and education.

As a key resource for Ontario, we are committed to partnerships to build clinical, academic and community capacity to enhance the quality of life for children with rehabilitation and complex care needs and their families.

VALUES Caring Client and Family-centred care Excellence Innovation Partnership Respect

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Centres for Leadership in Childhood Disability

Building on Bloorview’s foundation of excellent clinical care, we aim to further embrace research and education to extend our scope and reach to improve the quality of life for children with disabilities and their families worldwide.

Bloorview has developed a framework for Centres for Leadership in Childhood Disability, which incorporates the important role of clinical experts and research collaboratives, to further expand our capacity to integrate interdisciplinary research and teaching into clinical care. This new framework will allow us to improve knowledge generation and sharing, with the ultimate goal of being at the forefront of informed practice in the field of childhood disability globally.

We have selected two areas of initial focus for our Centres for Leadership: Participation and Child Development. These two areas were chosen because of their scope, their impact on the majority of clients served by Bloorview, the strength that already exists at Bloorview and the internal and external need for the latest knowledge in these two areas. In time, it is anticipated that other areas of clinical and research excellence at Bloorview may also be developed into Centres for Leadership.

Child Development: GOALS: We aim to extend our reach and impact in the area of Child Development through: • Knowledge Generation: becoming a leader in innovation and evaluation of interventions and technologies.

• Knowledge Exchange and Sharing: developing research collaboratives that facilitate the use of research knowledge among frontline health care providers, administrators and policy makers, and ensuring a practice-relevant culture among researchers in child development.

• Education and Training: creating a supportive environment that cultivates curiosity and creativity and integrates clinical and research training with our role in training the next generation of childhood disability health practitioners and scientists.

• Leading in Clinical Excellence: providing a range of evidence-informed, innovative services that have a positive impact on the quality of life for children with a range of disabilities such as cerebral palsy and autism.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES: By becoming a Centre for Leadership in Child Development, Bloorview will: • Enhance our ability to provide innovative and evidence-informed clinical child development programs.

• Improve access to service.

• Create engaged and integrated clinical and research collaboratives that put research into practice locally and globally.

• Develop and test new interventions and technologies.

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

Megan’s story Megan had been receiving occupational and physical therapy for cerebral palsy (CP) here at Bloorview. Despite her therapists’ efforts, her progress was limited by spasticity in her limbs. However, as Megan achieved some voluntary motor control, her therapists knew she would be a good candidate for Botox® treatment.

> Imagine a time when all kids with disabilities can be assured that they are receiving

Using Botox® to help treat spasticity in children with CP is a therapy developed at Bloorview. Not only did Megan benefit from the research knowledge generated here, she also helped researchers by participating in a number of studies.

evidence-informed care that will lead to better quality of life…

Other children both here and abroad benefit from Megan’s experience, as Bloorview researchers publish journal articles demonstrating the benefits of Botox® therapy, present at conferences, and share their knowledge one-on-one with other health providers.

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Gabby’s story The Independence Program (T.I.P.) is a 3-week program designed to give teens an opportunity to learn the skills needed for day-to-day independent living. Throughout the program, teens are given the opportunity to stay in dorm rooms so that they can learn just how self-sufficient they can be.

> Imagine a time when children participate fully in the lives of their family and their

Gabby was a client at Bloorview when she attended the program in 2006. Reflecting on her time there, she said, “The program showed me the door to my own independence – a door that was always there but I just couldn’t see it. Within those three short weeks, I learned valuable lessons that will be with me as long as I live.”

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

community…

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Centres for Leadership in Childhood Disability

• Foster improved understanding of the importance of early identification and intervention of childhood disability.

• Teach the next generation of developmental pediatricians and other health care providers at the undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate levels.

• Develop a new joint Centre of Excellence in Child Development with the University of Toronto.

• Facilitate collaboration between key stakeholders including clinicians, researchers, clients, families, policy makers and educators.

Participation: Defined as “the nature and extent of a person’s involvement in life situations”, participation is critical to the quality of life for each of our clients and their families. Participation includes the activities of personal maintenance, mobility, social relationships, education, employment, leisure, spirituality and community life.

GOALS: Building on Bloorview’s long and proud history in the areas of life skills and arts, Bloorview will develop a Centre for Leadership in Participation through: • Best Practice Development: working with partners to establish best practice and clinical expertise to meet the needs of our clients across their lifespan, through continued evaluation, research, conferences and publications.

• Knowledge Generation: leading the way in research-informed practice, encouraging the ongoing development and use of research knowledge in the area of life skills and arts in rehabilitation at Bloorview and around the world.

• Education and Training: leading the evaluation and research of the impact of the arts, by integrating traditional and non-traditional models into clinical practice and attracting medical and arts scientists focused on participation, arts and life skills, to educate and train health professionals.

• Knowledge Exchange and Sharing: showcasing the benefits of the arts and developing life skills for children with disabilities, and working with partners to further develop this field.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES: By becoming a Centre for Leadership in Participation, Bloorview will: • Develop and provide innovative and evidence-informed programs that support meaningful participation.

• Evaluate and demonstrate the value and benefit of life skills and arts for children and youth with disabilities.

• Enhance our work with our partners to extend access to programming into other communities and into the adult system.

• Improve access to services at Bloorview and across Ontario.

• Contribute to a new body of knowledge on participation, transition and quality of life.

• Attract scientists from the medical and arts communities to the field of research in participation and reach the next generation of practitioners in Ontario and beyond through education.

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Enhancing the Output and Impact of Research

Research is the cornerstone to advancing clinical care, developing innovative assistive technology, and enhancing the social participation of children with disabilities and their families. Built on an interdisciplinary approach, Bloorview is home to the only hospital-based research institute in childhood disability in Canada. As such, Bloorview has an opportunity to take a lead role in childhood disability research in Ontario, Canada and around the world.

GOALS: We aim to enhance the output and impact of our research to become an international leader in childhood disability by: • Advancing childhood disability research in three priority areas: evaluation of care (Practice), innovation and development (Product) and Participation.

• Promoting and facilitating the integration of research into clinical practice through collaborative partnership with the Centres for Leadership and expanding the clinician investigator program.

• Building capacity through the training of highly qualified researchers and clinicians.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES: By achieving our goals, the Bloorview Research Institute will: • Enhance clinical care, create new technologies and enhance meaningful participation and increase quality of life for children and families.

• Develop a comprehensive physical and physiological assessment suite for the technologyassisted access program, bringing together researchers, clinicians and other service providers to meet the unique needs of children and youth with severe disabilities.

• Train highly-qualified research and clinical leaders.

• Increase commercialization opportunities.

• Enhance academic productivity.

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

Karissa’s story Karissa Campbell used to cry when she saw her little sister sitting up to play with toys on the floor. That’s because Karissa has cerebral palsy and can’t sit independently. Unless her parents sat right behind to support her, Karissa had to play with toys lying down. This awkward position limited her ability to play, and she stopped using her weaker right hand altogether.

> Imagine a time when all children and families have access to technologies that

That changed when Karissa was introduced to Flip2Sit – a booster seat with a high back and thigh straps that supports children so they can use their hands at a table or on the floor.

improve their quality of life...

Flip2Sit was developed at Bloorview Kids Rehab and Karrisa was one of 30 children to participate in a study of its impact on quality of life for children with cerebral palsy and their families. Early study results show the products promote children’s independence and safety and improve quality of life for the entire family.

“I’ve noticed a big difference,” says Karissa’s mom Andrea Schindhelm. “With Flip2Sit Karissa can sit up and play by herself or with her siblings, without me being right behind her, which makes her feel more independent. And now she’s actually moving her right arm, which she didn’t before.”

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Locations for Bloorview-trained developmental pediatricians:

IRELAND

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EDMONTON

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CALIFORNIA THAILAND

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TORONTO MISSISSAUGA ORILLIA WHITBY OTTAWA NEW BRUNSWICK JAMAICA

CYPRUS

PERTH

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Teaching Developmental Pediatricians Bloorview has become the premier training ground for developmental pediatricians, which only recently became an accredited subspecialty of pediatrics under the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Over the past ten years, Bloorview has trained 22 developmental pediatricians, and our graduates are practicing all over the world as far away as Australia, as well as right here at Bloorview. In addition, we host physicians from around the world for observerships and electives, extending our reach even further.

By increasing our focus on excelling in teaching and learning through our Strategic Plan, Bloorview will be able to train more developmental pediatricians and make this specialty field available to children around the world.

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

> Imagine a time when every child with special needs in the world has access to a developmental pediatrician...

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Teaching and Learning Excellence and Innovation

Teaching and learning are critical components of Bloorview’s mission, and our role as an academic health sciences centre.

GOALS: Our goals to innovate and excel in teaching and learning are: • Leading Interprofessional Education (IPE) in childhood disability.

• Increasing training capacity for future developmental pediatricians.

• Offering a leading-edge teaching and learning environment for all health disciplines by ensuring our staff are equipped to be excellent supervisors and bedside educators.

• Partnering with academic faculties in advanced practice degree programs to ensure the best university teaching curriculum in all health disciplines.

• Engaging clients and families as active members of the health care team, filling knowledge gaps for families as well as providing them with strategies to navigate the system.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES: By extending our teaching and learning efforts, Bloorview will: • Be the IPE leader in the field of childhood disability.

• Expand our developmental pediatrician training program, the largest in North America, to address the training capacity challenges in the system.

• Enhance our leading edge practicum experience across all health disciplines in childhood disability.

• Develop, pilot and evaluate the use of simulation learning in childhood disability.

• Contribute to advanced practice learning in pediatric rehabilitation at the University of Toronto.

• Equip parents with the knowledge required to make effective decisions and be true members of their child’s care team.

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A Knowledge Hub for Childhood Disability

As the largest childhood disability facility in Canada, Bloorview is well positioned to play an active role in making specialized knowledge more widely available and accessible.

GOALS: Our aim is to be the leading source for childhood disability best practice and information by: • Developing a comprehensive, fully-integrated and high quality information resource on childhood disability topics for professionals, researchers and policy makers.

• Offering a comprehensive virtual and physical resource on childhood disability that meets the needs of clients and families in Ontario and around the world.

• Becoming a clearing-house of new evidence-based knowledge on childhood disability information from a variety of sources.

• Contributing to public education and advocacy as it relates to childhood disability.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES: By creating a Knowledge Hub in childhood disability, we will: • Disseminate knowledge that is current, relevant and objective.

• Be a world-renowned provider of robust information related to best practices for clients, families, clinicians, policy makers and researchers.

• Offer a forum to bring together research, new knowledge and clinical practice to ensure evidence-informed clinical care for children with disabilities.

• Be an expert resource on clinical techniques, interventions and models of service.

• Provide credible and current information and advice for policy makers.

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

Access to General Information Childhood disability is a very specialized health field. As a result, it is often difficult for health professionals, policy makers and families to get easy access to reliable information about childhood disability topics when they need it.

In fact, the Measures of Processes of Care (MPOC) survey tool, used with parents from a number of Children’s Treatment Centres in Ontario, shows that parents consistently rate Access to General Information lower than any other aspect of care. Recognizing this as a concern, Bloorview is committed to addressing this gap. Recent survey results indicate that our efforts are making a difference, as parents rated Access to General Information at Bloorview 10 per cent higher in 2007/2008 compared to 2005/2006.

> Imagine a time when the most reliable and extensive body of information on childhood disability is readily available...

The Knowledge Hub will improve our ability to provide targeted information for families, policy makers and other health and allied professionals.

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Dolly & Crystal’s Stories Dolly was a client at Bloorview as a child but when she turned 18, she was on her own to put into place the array of services she needed within the adult system. As a consequence, Dolly says her health, “deteriorate[d] well past the point [she] was upon discharge from Bloorview.”

Bloorview worked collaboratively with Toronto Rehab to create the LIFESpan Clinic - a program developed to address the fact that many of our clients do not meet admission criteria for traditional adult rehab or complex care programs.

Crystal is one of the young adults who has benefited from the LIFESpan Clinic. Commenting on the benefits of the program, she says, “LIFESpan is helpful because now I have somewhere to continue my health services.”

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

> Imagine a time when all the health care partners work together to ensure a coordinated system for youth with childhood-onset disabilities…

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Leading System Change and Integration and Improving Access to Services System change and integration has always been a focus for Bloorview, however, we will place further emphasis in this area to enhance access and facilitate a system approach to care and treatment to benefit our clients and families.

GOALS: By enhancing our three-pronged approach – clinical care, research and teaching – Bloorview will be positioned to take a lead in advancing the childhood disability agenda nationally and globally.

We will: • Build system capacity, address gaps in the system and enhance access in priority areas such as Child Development and Participation at Bloorview and beyond.

• Contribute to, and advocate for improved data and outcome measures for childhood disability.

• Profile and promote the child and youth disability agenda provincially and nationally through participation in relevant pediatric and rehab networks, LHINs, involvement in initiatives at the University of Toronto and with other academic partners.

• Explore opportunities to extend Bloorview’s global reach, where appropriate.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES: By taking the lead in campaigning for an improved health system for children with disabilities, we will: • Contribute to the national wait list project in Child Development and contribute to strategies to address access issues provincially.

• Establish national clinical benchmarks and targets for outcomes and access to services.

• Build appropriate partnerships to extend services across Ontario and achieve greater efficiencies in delivering programs internally.

• Acquire sustainable funding for programming to address gaps in the system, such as the transition programming and enhancement of respite services.

• Contribute to knowledge of outcomes and benchmarks in pediatric rehab through further development of Decision Support tools and collaboration with provincial and national partners in the disability and health information fields.

• Contribute to the national agenda for child health.

• Explore opportunities to partner with others in an international outreach program.

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Enablers

Bloorview Kids Rehab’s ambitious strategic plan

Funding:

will require the leadership and support of all staff across the organization. As such, Bloorview has identified enablers that will be essential in implementing our strategic priorities.

This Plan has implications for new initiatives, applied research, staff, volunteers, family facilitators, interprofessional education, technology and infrastructure, which all require funding.

Human Resources: Our goal is to ignite the passion, engagement and performance of our people. We know that the success of this new plan is highly dependent on our staff and volunteers as key resources. We will ensure Bloorview offers a healthy and safe workplace, where individuals and teams are empowered to make a difference. Particular emphasis will be placed on investing in and developing staff and volunteers, providing opportunities for learning and career development, and recognizing and rewarding innovation and excellence. When there is a need to recruit new staff, we will do so in a targeted and innovative way that attracts the best people in the field locally, nationally and internationally.

Our human resources plan emphasizes the need to have engaged staff. Bloorview is committed to fostering a workplace culture that will embrace these priorities, which can only be achieved by creating an environment that fosters success and leadership at all levels of the organization. This includes enhancing our focus on client and family-centred care, and embracing our efforts to improve: • Integration of staff in the areas of care, education and research.

• Interprofessional care practices in all clinical teams.

• The culture of leadership at all levels of the organization.

• Knowledge sharing and exchange.

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Bloorview Kids Rehab

Bloorview will develop a comprehensive and coordinated process for researching and identifying strategic partnerships and public and private external funding sources. We will support the fundraising strategies of the Bloorview Kids Foundation to seek donor support for endowments and other programs, and identify partners that offer matching funds. To ensure Bloorview can benefit from a variety of funding opportunities, we will be creative, flexible and nimble in working with the Foundation and other potential funders for our priority projects.

I n f o r m at i o n T e c h n o l o g y : A new Information Technology Resource Strategy will always be critical to Bloorview’s ability to be successful in all areas our work, and be vital to the success of our strategic priorities. The strategy will reflect a number of priorities and initiatives to support Bloorview’s ongoing ambition to be a leader in the health care sector, and appropriately underpin the new strategic priorities.

The plan will include: • Pursuing e-learning opportunities.

• Expanding our statistical data collection and warehousing tools.

• Developing a comprehensive Intranet.

• Implementing an electronic health record and clinical care mapping applications to support best practice.

• Focussing on e-health and moving towards longitudinal client documentation, external linkages and consumer-focused service.

• Ensuring enhanced use of telecommunications.

• Providing additional security to protect our systems and data.

Organizational Effectiveness

We expect that aspects of the Strategic Plan will have space requirements, which will be looked at on a case-by-case basis. In addition, given the continuing challenges that families face in

Bloorview is dedicated to enhancing access by providing effective and efficient services to our clients and families, incorporating our commitment to patient safety, quality improvement and performance measurement. We have adopted an integrated Organizational Effectiveness framework that enables us to create and nurture a progressive, efficient and effective environment that embraces the following areas:

accessing respite services in the community, Bloorview may need to provide or advocate for more respite services, which could lead to the need for additional off-site space.

C o m m u n i c at i o n s a n d B r a n d i n g : Bloorview’s brand and its enhancement is intrinsically linked with the success of the overall Strategic Plan and each strategic priority.

The new plan offers an opportunity for Bloorview to enhance its brand locally, provincially, nationally and globally.

Pat i e n t S a f e t y : Bloorview is committed to creating a culture of patient safety that is reflected in our work and daily practice. We have ensured that the staff have the tools, knowledge and expertise to carry out their safety responsibilities effectively, and will continue to ensure staff fully embrace this commitment.

Q ua l i t y I m p r ov e m e n t : Quality improvement is everyone’s responsibility at Bloorview. Built on a record of excellent quality improvement, as illustrated through our highlyrated accreditations, we have established a culture of continuous improvement. We take on major organization-wide initiatives for process improvement and each department undertakes continuous quality improvement initiatives to increase access and service delivery.

Performance Measurement: Effective use of information for decision-making is the cornerstone to our success. Our Decision Support service integrates information from across the organization and provides users with access to real-time data. The use of Decision Support services for measuring and monitoring our performance will be crucial for the success of the new Strategic Plan.

Bloorview Kids Rehab

Produced by: Communications & Public Affairs, Bloorview Kids Rehab. Design: Fuzzy Sweater Creative Inc. Photography: William Suarez, Tom Arban, Kimberlea Jones-Galley, Mike Cassese, Andrea Schindhelm, Jim Atkinson, MediMedia Group and courtesy of Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

S pa c e :

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Help us shape the future for children with disabilities and their families.

The possibilities are endless!

150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, ON M4G 1R8

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E info@bloorview.ca

A teaching hospital fully affiliated with

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www.bloorview.ca