Where planning meets practice: refining modern care spaces at The Ottawa Hospital’s new campus

Dec 2, 2025

With clinical insight and real-world simulations informing care spaces, The Ottawa Hospital’s new campus will be built with more than just blueprints.

As work continues to finalize design plans for our state-of-the-art new hospital, the expertise of clinical staff has been instrumental in fine tuning our care spaces. From the new single patient rooms to the birthing unit, staff and physicians who will work in clinical spaces have been involved in their design from concept to execution, providing valuable feedback to ensure final designs truly support the highest standard of care.

So, how do you evaluate the spaces of a new hospital that hasn’t been built yet?

The concept is simple, even though the execution is anything but: you build a prototype of the spaces.

Offsite, TOH and its development partner have been creating prototypes of key clinical rooms (referred to as mockups) that will be part of the new hospital. The mockups have been built to scale of the actual size and space of design plans and include patient beds and a variety of furniture options. During this phase of planning and development, the mockups are “low fidelity” representations of each space, meaning they do not include final finishings like essential equipment. This will allow for any modifications as needed to test design options and incorporate staff feedback.

The Ottawa Hospital’s new campus planning teams and clinical staff have been reviewing all aspects of these mockup rooms with a focus on patient safety and experience and maximizing workplace efficiency. No detail is spared as teams evaluate things like the distance and space between equipment and surfaces, the location of electrical outlets and operational panels, and the ability to make room for additional equipment when needed.

Inside the mock endoscopy unit, August 2025.

To get a true sense of function and flow within the new rooms, clinical teams recently conducted a variety of simulations of real-world scenarios within select mock care spaces. This exercise allows frontline staff to test the space and provide feedback before room designs are finalized.

“You can’t finalize the design of these spaces without trying to work in them,” says Dr. Glenn Posner, Director of The Ottawa Hospital Simulation Patient Safety Program and the University of Ottawa Skills and Simulation Centre, who led the sessions. “Being able to test the spaces and identify areas of improvement in an active environment is a great opportunity to make the necessary tweaks and changes before things are fully implemented and designs are final. Even the smallest suggestion can make a big difference to staff or patient experience.”

Recent simulations included a life-threatening medical emergency in a mock inpatient room and the delivery of a baby in a mock birthing unit.

TOH staff run a medical emergency simulation inside a mock inpatient room. Simulations to date have required personal protective equipment because of ongoing work to build and update the rooms.

There are plans to upgrade these mock clinical spaces to include finishings that will be part of the completed rooms in the new hospital.