At a time when more than 70 per cent of Ontario hospitals are forecasting deficits and even using their reserves to fund operating expenses, one health care organization says it’s in a good place and has some time to decide how to best utilize a generous $50 million donation.
“We actually are in a very positive balance. We’re ending this year like that and we can foresee for the next two to three years, we will be balanced as well and we don’t have debt,” Barb Collins, president and CEO of Humber River Health, tells INsauga.com.
Earlier this month, Humber River Health, an acute care hospital in the 401 and Keele Street area in Toronto, received what it called a “transformational” $50 million donation from the Hennick Family Foundation–a donation it said will accelerate innovation, research, education and patient care.
The hospital, which changed its name to Hennick Humber Hospital to mark one of the largest philanthropic donations to a Canadian community hospital, says it’s North America’s “first fully digital hospital.”
Its efficiency and healthy finances are, Collins says, part of what made the hospital attractive to Jay and Barbara Hennick, two well-known business leaders and philanthropists.
“The Hennick family approached us in September. They were considering organizations and they wanted to understand more about Humber River Health,” Collins said, adding that the path to a significant donation can take time to traverse.
By December 2025, Collins and her team knew the donation was coming and now, several months later, they can take time to decide how best to use it over not just the coming months, but years.
“I think what [the Hennick family] was looking for was a culture of caring and a culture of innovation. We had several meetings, but it was really the feeling of the team, the feeling of being committed to really high-quality care. They said your care is great; we want you to be greater. What do you want to be next? How do you want to use this to become even better?”
Collins says the donation won’t be needed to pay off debt, fund a new building, or repair an older one.
“It’s going to patient care and better patient care,” she says.
When asked if there is anything specific the donation can or will be used for, Collins says discussions are ongoing.
“We are consulting on that matter, and I will tell you why. We have money that we can use to buy capital. We just changed MRIs. We’re changing CT [equipment]. We’re buying those kinds of things ourselves. What we are doing is working collectively to [ask] ‘what does Humber want in the next 10 years?’ What are those things we should focus on? What do we know about our community’s needs? What do we know about our hospital needs?”
For Collins, enhancing technological resources is part of the hospital’s long-term growth plan. While many professional organizations have worried about the impact of artificial intelligence on the labour market and myriad industries, Collins says AI, along with other tech, can streamline health care practices and provide patients with a more seamless, integrated and positive experience.
Collins says Humber, which opened 10 years ago with a mandate to be fully digital, is focused on providing better care and more efficient operations.
“This $50 million donation allows us to look at the next 10 years, the next 15 years,” she says.
The donation, part of which will be an endowment fund, will allow the hospital to innovate as times and demands change. As of now, Hennick Humber Hospital boasts a fully integrated electronic medical record system, real-time location systems, and a command centre (the first of its kind in Canada) that uses real-time data and AI to monitor patient flow, predict capacity challenges, and improve operational efficiency.
Collins says the command center holds data from all areas of the hospital and updates automatically every four minutes. When a patient arrives in the emergency department, the command centre will track when they checked in and their wait time to ensure they see a physician as soon as possible. If a problem arises, the hospital will find out immediately.
“What are the delays that are keeping them there? Oh, they didn’t get their MRI or the CT, or the doctor didn’t get back to them. We know that and we are able to intervene. When a patient is ready for admission, we have already predicted where the beds will be available,” she says, adding that beds are cleaned quickly because the centre ensures all staff, from clinicians to janitorial staff, know where to be and when.
Collins says the hospital’s focus on technology has allowed it to avoid one of the province’s signature challenges: “hallway health care.”
“Every tax dollar cannot come to health care, so we have to be operationally efficient. We have to have people in beds, not hallways. We have to get people through the emergency department quickly and many of the things that we’ve focused on, which might not have been terribly exciting, got us to that point,” Collins says, adding that other hospitals have toured the facility to see exactly how the command system works.
Avoiding hallway health care has been difficult for many Ontario hospitals. According to a 2025 news release from the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, the number of patients treated in hallways reached a record high in 2024, while multiple emergency departments closed, the wait list for long-term care beds hit 48,000 people and 250,000 people were placed on wait lists for surgeries.
Data suggests that as of late 2024/early 2025, approximately 2.5 million Ontarians are without a family doctor, which can compel people to seek care in hospitals.
Collins says that while the challenges are vast, using technology can help alleviate some of the strain. As far as AI goes, Collins says delegating some tasks to machines can free up physicians to spend more one-on-one time with patients and provide patients with more information that will empower them to make decisions about their care.
“Patients will see that their care providers have more face time with them and less time at a computer. I think that they will find information about their own health more accessible to them,” she says.
Collins says the hospital is also working on a system that will allow patients to stay home until closer to their appointment, reducing time spent in waiting rooms.
Because of the hospital’s financial health, the facility can, according to Collins, afford to study innovation and technology.
“We can afford to be a bit leading edge and we can afford to do some of these things because of the enviable position we’re in, but you always have to know that somebody’s going to make it even better and as long as you’re open to that, then you get to expand your programs even more.”
The technology, however, isn’t simply impressive–Collins believes it’s what has allowed the hospital to provide patients with quicker access to physicians (and no time spent in non-clinical spaces) and satisfaction with their care.
“High reliability care is really understanding that hospitals are complex organizations and what we need to do is be out in front, understanding processes, understanding issues, responding quickly when something happens, and preventing it from happening by having the proper processes in place is very important,” she says.
Now, the donation gives the hospital more options to explore innovation at a time when health care, due to an aging population, population growth, and new pathogens, is in demand more than ever.
AI and technology, Collins says, can even be used to help older patients better manage their medical conditions and medications at home–keeping people out of hospitals longer and ensuring beds aren’t occupied by people who do not need acute care, but might need more assistance that is available at home.
“Now, with this donation and with the fact that we are in a good financial situation, we can begin to focus on some of the fun stuff.”
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