Facts & Figures

Brief Historical Facts

A major university-affiliated centre involved in patient care, teaching and research, St. Boniface Hospital is part of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and serves the people of Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario and parts of Saskatchewan.
Our mission focuses on quality patient care, education and research for the improvement of patient care. It is accomplished through teamwork, innovation, strong financial management and continual striving for compassionate care to those in need.
The second largest hospital in Manitoba, it provides community outreach programs, ambulatory care programs and inpatient services.
The Hospital is affiliated with the University of Manitoba’s faculties of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, social work, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other health-care disciplines.
As a tertiary care facility, the Hospital maintains a core of clinical activities to support its overall leadership, including: anaesthesia, diagnostic imaging, family practice, geriatric medicine, laboratory medicine, medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, pathology, outpatient pediatrics, psychiatry, surgery. These are grouped under eight clinical programs: Cardiac Sciences, Emergency, Family Medicine, Medicine, Mental Health, Rehab/Geriatrics, Surgery and Obstetrics, Gynecology & Neonatology.
The Hospital has demonstrated provincial leadership and significant expertise in the areas of cardiac sciences, emergency medicine, gastrointestinal disease, neurosciences, oncology, palliative care, perinatal care, geriatric medicine, family medicine.
St. Boniface employs 3,500 staff in a variety of support capacities. In addition, some 340 doctors have admitting privileges at SBH. They are appointed by the Board of Directors following the recommendation of the Medical Advisory Committee. Peer reviews and professional care evaluations by the medical staff are used to examine performance of medical staff members.
The Research Centre has more than 190 research and support personnel working in it with a budget of $7 million. Its research programs are directly linked to clinical departments in the Hospital: infectious diseases, respiratory medicine, nephrology, cardiology, clinical nursing research, cancer research.

Chronology

1871

1897

1959

1971

1974

1976

1987

1990

1993

1998

1999

2003

2007

2011

1871

St. Boniface Hospital was established by the Sisters of Charity of Montreal “Grey Nuns”. The four-bed hospital was situated on the present site, on the east bank of the Red River, at the fork of the Assiniboine and Red rivers in Manitoba. It is the first hospital in Western Canada.

1897

The Grey Nuns open a School of Nursing.

Today, the Hospital offers a thriving academic learning environment for undergraduate and graduate student nurses enrolled in the University of Manitoba, Faculty of Nursing.

1959

St. Boniface Hospital performs the first cardiac surgery in Manitoba.

1971

The St-Boniface Hospital Foundation was established in 1971, on the 100th anniversary of St. Boniface Hospital.

Its original purpose was to raise funds to support medical research. Today, the Foundation raises funds to support excellence in health care and research at St. Boniface Hospital in a manner that embodies the legacy of the Grey Nuns. Since its inception 40 years ago, the Foundation has raised more than $140 million to meet these needs. Funds raised have supported the construction of the G. Campbell MacLean Building, home of St-Boniface Hospital Research, the purchase of Manitoba’s first Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner, and the construction of the I.H. Asper Clinical Research Institute.

1974

St. Boniface Hospital becomes the first hospital in Canada to develop a palliative care program.

1976

The St. Boniface Foundation established the International Award to honour individuals who have made, through their genius, talent and energy, an outstanding contribution to health care and the community.

Since then, people such as Dr. Jonas Salk, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Dr. Andrei Sakharov, Sir Edmund Hillary and most recently, Dr. Donall Thomas and Jose Carreras have been honoured.

1987

St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre opens.

It is the first free-standing research facility constructed in Canada.

1990

Manitoba’s first Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner used for research and clinical applications was installed in a separate but adjacent building.

1993

The Medical Research Council of Canada awarded the cardiovascular research team over $5 million to continue its research and designated it a “Medical Research Group”.

1998

St. Boniface Hospital opened the Centre for Research on Diseases of the Aging on the 4th floor of the Research Centre, thanks to $12.6 M in funds raised by the Research Foundation.

The Centre’s researchers will study senile dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. Approximately 100 staff are involved in this research.

1999

The MRI is upgraded and two new ones for patient care and research are installed.

2003

St. Boniface’s new I.H. Asper Clinical Research Institute was completed.

It is a state-of-the-art facility that bridges the gap between the Research Centre and the Hospital by allowing clinical trials to take place for the very first time in Manitoba. As such, it will provide Manitobans with direct and early access to leading-edge treatments and technology without having to leave the province.

2007

St. Boniface Hospital introduces an electronic patient record, the first of its kind in a Manitoba hospital.

2011

The new cardiac sciences surgical services at St. Boniface Hospital’s I.H. Asper Institute is officially opened.

An outpatient clinic is also opened for pre-surgery patients and for post-surgery follow-ups.