Help us picking hospital (Toronto)

[iamdogdog]

My wife is going to be a new mom and I am going to be a new dad, yeah!

Family doctor need us to make a decision on which hospital and which gynecologist. We have narrowed down all the hospital within our area

Order of distance from home:
1. Markham Stouffville Hospital
2. York Central Hospital
3. North York General

Any comments and experiences you can share with us?

Thanks.

[mjl_toronto]

My wife is going to be a new mom and I am going to be a new dad, yeah!

Family doctor need us to make a decision on which hospital and which gynecologist. We have narrowed down all the hospital within our area

Order of distance from home:
1. Markham Stouffville Hospital
2. York Central Hospital
3. North York General

Any comments and experiences you can share with us?

Thanks.

First off, congratulations to you both!

We ended up having an unplanned homebirth so can't really comment on which hospital. We were planning to have the birth at Toronto East General (recognized by World Health Organization as baby friendly) with North York being our second choice.

But whatever it's worth, I hear nothing but horror stories about York. In fact, I recently had a couple friends who experienced a death in the family due to a botched up procedure at that hospital. Of course maternity wards are very different from OR's so take it FWIW.

I would recommend you visit each hospital (make an appointment) and see for yourselves what the facilities are like and ask them what makes their birthing facilities stand out compared with others.

[kitty darko]

Markham Stouffville has a very good reputation as a hospital overall but also for obstetrics. I delivered at that hospital and the staff there is great. Congratulations to your family, hope all goes well.

[gravem]

We used Toronto East General for our first... it was a great hospital. So good that we are using it for our second too (due in July) even though it will be really inconvenient this time (we moved from DVP/Eglinton area out to Ajax). We've heard so many bad things about the Ajax hospital due to the doctor shortage....

That said, we were at North York General last week for an amniocentesis and they were great there as well. It would probably be our second choice.

[yyz2hkg]

Nygh +1

[Yours]

My wife is going to be a new mom and I am going to be a new dad, yeah!

Family doctor need us to make a decision on which hospital and which gynecologist. We have narrowed down all the hospital within our area

Order of distance from home:
1. Markham Stouffville Hospital
2. York Central Hospital
3. North York General

Any comments and experiences you can share with us?

Thanks.

Congrats to the parent-to-be! I am a mom of two. Both of my kids (including a one month newborn baby) are delivered in North York General Hospital. I love the hospital so much because of the supporting staffs, caring nurses, experience doctors, new faculties, and comfortable and clean environment. I delivered my first in year 2006 and went back last month for my second baby. I noticed that the hospital is improving. Caring nurse speak different languages. The location is right off the highway too.

My friend went to Stouffville Hospital and said it's so so...

Good Luck!

[Angela V]

I had my son at North York in 2000. This was before they made the new maternity wing. Had a good experience there. The birthing room I was in looked like a bedroom. They could hide equipment behind wooden cabinets.

[iamdogdog]

Thanks to all of your recommendations.

Sounds like North York general wins it. However, my wife would want a closer hospital (lazy), and at the end, we picked the markham Stouffville(10 mins drive). I will report back how's this hospital is doing.
P.S. North York general would be 30mins drive without traffic.

One more thing, if you want someone to speak cantonese or mandarin(we are chinese), then Markham Stouffville is not for you as they don't have any chinese doctor available there.

[ash101]

Just let you know York Central only have two private rooms and most are semi.

[Twinbros]

Both NYGH and Markham are great. No complaints what so ever.

[gman]

Thanks to all of your recommendations.

Sounds like North York general wins it. However, my wife would want a closer hospital (lazy), and at the end, we picked the markham Stouffville(10 mins drive). I will report back how's this hospital is doing.
P.S. North York general would be 30mins drive without traffic.

One more thing, if you want someone to speak cantonese or mandarin(we are chinese), then Markham Stouffville is not for you as they don't have any chinese doctor available there.

If you don't have language issue, Stouffville is an easy choice because of the distance. 10 minutes vs 45 minutes (30 minutes without traffic) is a big difference. Just imagine if you miss something and need to go home, it will take 1 to 1.5 hour for a round trip vs 20 minutes.

[pipolchap]

NYG is great and the staff is great.

Only downside is not enough private rooms and I couldn't wait to go home!

[JonnyS]

+1 NYG. Had my 2 boys there. Staff is great. The new L/D rooms are really nice...

[PrettyJade]

I had all 3 of my children out of Toronto East General. The doctors and staff were great.

My brother's wife had her first (2005) in Toronto East General's new maternity ward. They opted for the private room and my brother stayed overnight with his wife.

Their second was born at Ajax Pickering (2007) as they could not get to TEGH in the morning rush traffic. They would never recommend anyone having a baby there (Ajax-Pickering Hospital). Both mother and baby had some complications due to attending physician's unwillingness to perform certain procedures as they were not the primary healthcare provider.

[hightech]

My wife is going to be a new mom and I am going to be a new dad, yeah!

Family doctor need us to make a decision on which hospital and which gynecologist. We have narrowed down all the hospital within our area

Order of distance from home:
1. Markham Stouffville Hospital
2. York Central Hospital
3. North York General

Any comments and experiences you can share with us?

Thanks.

Most of the hospital's you mentioned are local community hospitals. If you want the best, you need to be part of a teaching hospital and part of the University Health Network. Here are some that immediately come to mind:

- Mount Sinai
- Sunnybrook
- Toronto Western

[gerbil]

we've never been to stouville but we know @ least 8 people who gave birth to this specific hospital and they're all very satisfied and happy.

On the other hand, we where @ Humber Hospital (Hwy 400 & Finch) with our 1st kid and it was a terrible experience. I thought I'd drop this in here. On our 2nd kid, we had a mid-wife --> it was awesome!

[miguel sanchez]

We had an excellent experience at Toronto East General (TEGH), although we were only there for about 36 hours in total. The facilities were relatively new, the staff were all great, and the breast-feeding clinic (very important for us as the little one had trouble latching) was amazing as well. We were there almost on a daily basis until the kid figured it out and started gaining some weight. Visit them before you deliver so that everything is all set up.

We also went to the breast-feeding clinic at Women's College a couple of times and they were extremely helpful even though our kid wasn't born there. (TEGH clinic was closed July long-weekend.)

[royaljelly]

North York General has a level 2 neonatal intensive care unit, so their peds care overall should be better (if it turns out you need it).

Our child was also born @ NYGH, but the only thing annoying was the very limited number of private beds in the post-partum (after delivery) ward. Not sure if they renovated or increased the number of private beds since 2005.

As for Chinese speaking OBs at Markham-Stouville, what about Dr. Neil Chang... doesn't he speak some form of Chinese?

http://www.cpso.on.ca/Doctor_Search/Results1.asp?Scr=FIRST&Type=ADV&LName=chang&FName=neil&Status=active&Gender=either&PCode=&DrType=alldr

Someone mentioned about having a baby at a downtown/teaching hospital for the supposed "best" care. Keep in mind that is usually the case for high-risk/complicated maternal deliveries, but for most healthy pregnancies you probably won't need them. Plus you'll end up getting delivered by either a resident or worse yet, a 3rd year med student w/ a resident watching over them. North York General is a teaching hospital as well so their staff should be quite up to date.

Back to the OP's original post... I think you made a good choice in sticking with Markham-Stouffville hosp. Proximity really helps, especially if it's your first kid. You really don't want to drive 30-60mins or be stuck on the 401 or 404 while your wife is in labour. Plus the first few contractions they may assess her and end up sending you home to "wait". If this is your first born, then the amount of time your wife spends in the early stages of labour might be longer than a mom who's having her 2nd or 3rd kid. Good luck with everything!

[Jonavin]

NYGH is highly rated by friends of ours who had babies there.

We picked Markham-Stouffville because they were much closer since we live near the 407. It took all of 10 minutes to get to the hospital and we didn't have to worry about traffic, any time of day.

The staff there was great and our OB was on-call that day and actually delivered our baby. If there's anything to "nit pick" about is that they don't have that many private rooms.

[naveed3434]

Just found out my wife is expecting and would like to hear info about delevering kids in our closest hospitals;

1. Scarborough General (nickname: One way ticket hospital)
But < 5 min away
2. Rough Valley (Centenially) 20 minutes
3. Sunny Brook (20-30 minutes away) too far?

Any users with experience at any of these?

[sienna owner]

CONGRATS!!!

we had both of ours at Markham-Stouffville..great experience.

The key is to make sure you're ready mentally!!

You will only have a great experience if you want one...a lot of people go into hospitals thinking they should get the royal treatment no matter what comes out of their mouth..lol

Now I know women will say, "you try to take labour". I'm not saying it's not hard, just that you need to channel that extra energy at deliver time..not at the nurse trying to get you checked in properly so they have everything covered.

Anyways, there are going to be many stories about each hospital. You may want to schedule a tour or the ones you're considering.

[The_Professor]

Just found out my wife is expecting and would like to hear info about delevering kids in our closest hospitals;

1. Scarborough General (nickname: One way ticket hospital)
But < 5 min away
2. Rough Valley (Centenially) 20 minutes
3. Sunny Brook (20-30 minutes away) too far?

Any users with experience at any of these?

I believe the labour and delivery ward at Sunnybrook is 'closed' for construction/renovation at this time, and as such they are referring all patients to a downtown hospital (might be Toronto East, can't remember).

Best to check their website.

Two of my closest friends have had their babies delivered at Mt. Sinai in the past few months and both raved about the care and staff there.

[l69norm]

I believe the labour and delivery ward at Sunnybrook is 'closed' for construction/renovation at this time, and as such they are referring all patients to a downtown hospital (might be Toronto East, can't remember)....

It's temporarily at Women's College:
http://www.womenscollegehospital.ca/programs/program140.html

[The_Professor]

It's temporarily at Women's College:
http://www.womenscollegehospital.ca/programs/program140.html

Ah yes, that's it, thanks.

[T-Man]

Just found out my wife is expecting and would like to hear info about delevering kids in our closest hospitals;

1. Scarborough General (nickname: One way ticket hospital)
But < 5 min away
2. Rough Valley (Centenially) 20 minutes
3. Sunny Brook (20-30 minutes away) too far?

Any users with experience at any of these?


DO NOT GO TO SCARBOUROUGH GENERAL!!!!

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080229/WFIVE_RIGHTTOKNOW_080301/20080229?hub=WFive

The thing is the hospital had documented cases after cases against their Surgeon Dr. Austin, but ALLOWED HIM TO CONTINUE WORKING THERE. Makes me believe what other areas of the hospital they let slide or turned a blind eye to. Read the story and watch the video clips, I'm going on to part 2 of the video now.....

[slim_shady]

Another option is to use a Midwife with hospital privileges close to you -- this way it doesn't matter what the doctors/nurses are like because you are only using the hospital facilities, not their staff (unless there are complications, of course).

[looniepincher]

+1 the neo-natal ICU comment. I think NYGH has one. Better to be safe in case you need one. Personally, we're bypassing the local hospitals and going downtown to Women's College Hospital. Hopefully we don't run into traffic!

[naveed3434]

DO NOT GO TO SCARBOUROUGH GENERAL!!!!

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080229/WFIVE_RIGHTTOKNOW_080301/20080229?hub=WFive

The thing is the hospital had documented cases after cases against their Surgeon Dr. Austin, but ALLOWED HIM TO CONTINUE WORKING THERE. Makes me believe what other areas of the hospital they let slide or turned a blind eye to. Read the story and watch the video clips, I'm going on to part 2 of the video now.....

Thanks for your reply, I understand that Scar Gen has that image of being a one way hospital but in this case we just need to deliver a baby and not have anything major (hopefully not a cesarean). I wonder if it would be that bad.

Does anyone have any experience @ that hospital?

[MoreMiles]

Do NOT go to York Central Hospital. Poor nurse-to-patient ratio, outsourced contract workers, limited space. Richmond Hill has grown at least 10 times in population since a few years ago.... YCH has not grown much, you do the math.

[Song]

my doctor has recommended mt. sinai as the 'best place to have a baby' but it's quite far as we don't live anywhere close to downtown toronto! we're actually in the west end of toronto, maybe humber regional is the closest..
i don't even know if they do babies there...
pls share your thoughts!:confused:

[bebesush]

I had my daughter at Rouge Valley Centenary last June. I picked this hospital because my OBGYN's office is in the hospital and she ended up delivering my daughter that day.

The delivery area is quite old but the rooms that I got after were very nice. I really liked the nurses and they really took care of us.

A plus, is the parking 5 minutes from the hospital at the plaza. We had a lot of hospital visitors eager to see the baby and they like the fact that they didn't have to pay for parking.

[iamdogdog]

FYI - Markham Stouffville Hospital parking is quite expensive in my mind. For a 2-hours visit, $12.00. My OB told us that we have to go see her once a week when it come closer to due. So this might be some more info for people to choose which hospital.

The food at the cafe in hospital is quite good and price is reasonable.

[mr_raider]

my doctor has recommended mt. sinai as the 'best place to have a baby' but it's quite far as we don't live anywhere close to downtown toronto! we're actually in the west end of toronto, maybe humber regional is the closest..
i don't even know if they do babies there...
pls share your thoughts!:confused:

Don't live in TO, but I know Mount Sinai and Sunnybrooke/Women's pretty well. The main argument for delivering at either place is the on site availability of high risk obstetrics and neonatology. However, only a small fraction of moms/babies need that level of advanced care, and most community hospital OBs should recognize the need for transfer well in advance.

I would look in to a quality local hospital and not worry too much. If there is a complication, you will be transferred.

[mrsmagoo2001]

Congrats on the new baby. How lucky you are to have the choice of OB and Hospital.

[Da Grape]

My wife is due in December, we are lucky to have a very nice OB and the hospital we have is North York. I don't know anything about the hospital but glad so far what i've read here are positive. We'll have to setup an appointment to view the facilities but not enough private rooms?

[wirebound]

I had my first son with midwives in Mt. Sinai downtown. I somehow managed to get the very last birthing room available and didn't get a recovery room at all. In hindsight, it was a blessing, but at the time, I was rather freaked out when asked whether I wanted to wait for a recovery room in the HALLWAY all day, or go home. We were home 4 hours after he was born. Bear in mind though, I had midwives and could page them 24/7. So yeah, just because its downtown, doesn't necessarily mean its perfect. I wouldn't have any issues with any of the downtown hospitals or NYGH. I've heard great things with NYGH. The breastfeeding clinic at TEGH though is fantastic - a huge assest to those in the area.

My second child was a homebirth though - no commute at all!

[nalababe]

Don't live in TO, but I know Mount Sinai and Sunnybrooke/Women's pretty well. The main argument for delivering at either place is the on site availability of high risk obstetrics and neonatology. However, only a small fraction of moms/babies need that level of advanced care, and most community hospital OBs should recognize the need for transfer well in advance.

I would look in to a quality local hospital and not worry too much. If there is a complication, you will be transferred.

Sunnybrook does not do deliveries yet. They are now separate from WC. It is coming but still not there yet. They don't have a NICU either.

[mr_raider]

Sunnybrook does not do deliveries yet. They are now separate from WC. It is coming but still not there yet. They don't have a NICU either.

What's the one downtown not far from sick kids? I went there for a conference a few years ago.

[nalababe]

What's the one downtown not far from sick kids? I went there for a conference a few years ago.

Both Mt. Sinai and Women's College are right around Sick Kids. Mt. Sinai is across University and Women's College is just up the street on Elizabeth.

[arctics]

we both live downtown, but my wife's sisters both delivered at Markham Stouffville, so now she wants to go there too. Also, both our parents live in Markham. But Mount Sinai is my first pick since it's really close to where we live, and it's a better hospital from what I hear. So now I'm trying to convince her.

I'm really not looking forward to driving every week in traffic for appointments, not to mention while she's in labour.

[nalababe]

If you live downtown, then it is foolish to drive to a smaller hospital that has half of the services of Mt. Sinai and could be an hour+ away.

[mulambo187]

had my daughter 2.5 years ago at mt sinai. very good experiance, nurses work like slaves for you, prob 1 nurse to 4 mothers, but they are so helpful and attentive. i stayed at the hospital with my wife and daughter, just sleept beside them.... the space was small, but i think it was a positive experience, they had breast feeding classes (super supportive in this area too), and how to bathe a new born, thats pretty much all you NEED to know when they are that small, the rest is just a lot of love and common sense, the routine doctors appointments will keep you in check.... only bad thing is if you want a semi private or private, good luck, a lady across from us came in around 4am after delivering, and was flipping cause there was only ward rooms available....lol imo wards arnt that bad, the nurse is in the room a lot and your only there for about a day or 3. you can make friends with the other people or not, we talked to them four about an hour total over 2 days.

[backbones]

You couldn't pay me enough to choose York Central, even though it's the closest one to me.

[naveed3434]

My wife and I decided to go with Sinia, we are asking for a private room (found out our insurance covers it) so we hope that works out.

So far the doctors and nurses have been great. The only thin I really have to complain about is parking. Everything time we go, it's about $15.

[arctics]

Ok, so I was able to convince her to switch to Sinai, but after calling all the Dr's, there was only one available, so we booked it with him. Dr. Peter Hawrylyshyn ... anyone ever heard of him?

But at least we're in now. Next step is to try getting a private room, which I hear is tough at this hospital.

[dairymandip]

nyg my mom works there as a nurse in post partum

she's nice :)

[thelefteyeguy]

nyg my mom works there as a nurse in post partum

she's nice :)

cool...should the op ask for dairymandip's mom? :cheesygri

[thelefteyeguy]

Ok, so I was able to convince her to switch to Sinai, but after calling all the Dr's, there was only one available, so we booked it with him. Dr. Peter Hawrylyshyn ... anyone ever heard of him?

But at least we're in now. Next step is to try getting a private room, which I hear is tough at this hospital.

prob discussed already...but unless you're going to fork some money out to your ob...likely won't be delivery by this person...it will be whoever is on duty

[Manitoby]

I had my son at North York in 2000. This was before they made the new maternity wing. Had a good experience there. The birthing room I was in looked like a bedroom. They could hide equipment behind wooden cabinets.


My daughter was born at North York as well and we had good experience there.

[magnum]

I had my daughter at Rouge Valley Centenary last June. I picked this hospital because my OBGYN's office is in the hospital and she ended up delivering my daughter that day.

The delivery area is quite old but the rooms that I got after were very nice. I really liked the nurses and they really took care of us.

A plus, is the parking 5 minutes from the hospital at the plaza. We had a lot of hospital visitors eager to see the baby and they like the fact that they didn't have to pay for parking.

My wife is going to this hospital currently. They have a new maternity wing opening up this October.