Orlando Corporation issued a challenge that united communities to elevate local health care.

What does it take to uplift a community? It takes inspiration, heart and—most important of all—initiative. And that’s exactly what happened in 2014 when Orlando Corporation pledged $15 million to Osler—the single largest gift to a community hospital in Canada at the time. But the gift, divided in three equal parts to support each of Osler’s hospital sites, came with a caveat: it was to be a time-limited, matching gift fund to challenge the community. For each dollar donated by companies and individuals, Orlando Corporation would match it, until the end of 2018.

As the deadline for the match drew near, a number of staff and community partners stepped up to the challenge, edging Osler closer to its $100 million Capital Campaign goal.

“Orlando has brought our communities together,” says Ken Mayhew, President and CEO, Osler Foundation. “We are incredibly grateful for their transformational gift. A vast majority of our health care happens at community hospitals and Orlando Corporation has enabled us to bring a new level of care to our communities.”

Beyond supporting equipment and infrastructure for Peel Memorial’s Mental Health Clinic, and Etobicoke General’s new Emergency Department, Orlando also supported a new Siemens ARTIS Pheno, a robot-supported angiography system, putting Osler on the map as the first community hospital in Canada offering leading-edge, minimally invasive vascular surgery.

The system, housed within the newly opened Endovascular Therapeutics Suite, supports a unique level of teamwork that enables vascular surgeons and interventional radiologists to work together to provide personal, more seamless care for patients.

“Health teams are now coming to us to study our new model of care,” says Dr. Varun Kapila, Chief of Vascular Surgery, stating that the Suite has attracted specialists from across Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia.

The Suite, which opened in September 2018, now operates daily, treating at least three to four patients a day with life-threatening conditions varying from heart attacks to aneurysms. “Orlando Corporation has truly helped crystallize a platform on which we can build a vision and a team,” says Dr. David Kelton, Interventional Vascular Radiologist and Site Chief of Diagnostic Imaging, Brampton Civic.