Frequently asked questions

The Schroeder Ambulatory Centre is a charitable, not-for-profit medical facility currently under construction in Richmond Hill, Ontario.  Once open, the Centre will provide a range of outpatient healthcare services which improve the wellbeing of Ontarians, while providing needed efficiencies and capacity expansion for the health system.

The Centre’s primary facility is located at 9355 Leslie Street and has seven floors, 200,000 square feet, and 820 parking spaces. The Centre also maintains administrative offices at 1725 16th Avenue. Richmond Hill was selected due to its central location at the intersection of Highways 404 and 407, putting many Ontarians within a two-hour drive.

Pending required licensing, accreditation and collaborative hospital partnerships, medical services offered will include general practice and specialist clinics, diagnostics, treatments, physiotherapy, and same-day surgeries and procedures. The Centre’s medical specialties are envisioned to encompass orthopedics, gastroenterology, radiology, urology, gynecology, ophthalmology, family practice, audiology, plastic surgery, and others. The Centre will also have a Rexall retail pharmacy and food service options. The Centre will prioritize providing as many OHIP-covered procedures as possible, with non-insured services offered to supplement patients' options and provide choice.

The Centre’s mission is to alleviate pain, improve mobility and enhance quality of life for Ontarians, while supporting improved efficiency of the public health system. The emphasis is on programs and services where waiting times are extended, access is limited, or where philanthropy can be leveraged to create lasting solutions to challenges of the public health system.

The Centre is anticipated to open by late 2025, pending completion of key construction and operational milestones.

The Centre has plans to begin with primary and specialist clinical care, licensed services such as gastrointestinal endoscopy, knee/hip surgery, and MRI imaging, and select non-insured services such as vision correction surgery. Additional planned services to be added in the future include other licensed outpatient surgeries, new clinical services, and additional imaging modalities.

Ambulatory surgical centres (ASCs) are licensed facilities that perform same-day procedures, allowing patients to recover at home. Ontario’s new ICHSCA framework was created to shift some lower-risk surgeries to these settings, improving access and reducing wait times while maintaining safety and oversight.

The Centre is committed to reducing wait times by expanding healthcare capacity, optimizing workflows, and working closely with healthcare providers and technology partners to uncover new efficiency opportunities. The ambulatory care model itself offers inherent advantages, with high-volume repetition of services driving greater efficiency. Together, these efforts enable the Centre to deliver essential medical procedures more quickly, while lowering costs and reducing the strain on human resources.

Construction and outfit of the Schroeder Ambulatory Centre is being funded entirely through The Schroeder Foundation, with no public funding. This initiative represents a novel approach to supporting healthcare sustainability in Canada and exemplifies the potential of philanthropy to create solutions that others may replicate.

All capital funds to build and outfit the Centre were provided by a generous gift from The Schroeder Foundation. The Centre is operationally sustained through a mix of payers and licensing. Specifically, some health services offered at the Centre are regulated under the Integrated Community Health Services Centre Act (ICHSCA) of Ontario, through which the Centre, pending approval, will receive licensing and facility fee-based funding for performing insured services.

The Schroeder Ambulatory Centre will maintain rigorous safety and quality standards for its services, consistent with those of public hospitals, and will have staff dedicated to ensuring high standards are maintained. For services licensed under ICHSCA, the Centre will be accredited by Accreditation Canada, an independent, non-governmental organization. For other services, the Centre will meet practice requirements and inspection standards of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO).

Physicians and surgeons practicing at the Centre are leaders in their fields and are credentialed by the Centre to confirm their licensing, qualifications, and ability to meet the Centre’s standards and practices. They also generally have primary affiliation with one or more public hospitals, so most physicians split their time between the Centre and affiliated public hospitals while ensuring public hospital duties are maintained. This prevents shifting of care capacity from hospitals.

The Schroeder Ambulatory Centre is fully committed to supporting and protecting Ontario’s public hospitals. While the Centre is independent of public hospitals, the respective executive teams collaborate across issues of mutual interest or concern and oversee coordination of patient care across organizations. Additionally, the Centre partners with hospitals to provide supplemental capacity as needed to address temporary hospital constraints or meet larger health system needs. Examples of this include providing access to infrastructure and/or medical equipment to support hospitals' uninterrupted operations during their own capital development / infrastructure projects.

The Schroeder Ambulatory Centre Foundation is a separate not-for-profit corporation, with a similar charitable purpose, established to oversee fundraising in support of the Schroeder Ambulatory Centre mission and for management of the real property assets which support the Centre.

The Centre’s goal is to bring a substantial volume of insured healthcare services online which address both immediate backlogs and provides substantial capacity and access expansion for the long-term benefit of the public, including diverse, vulnerable, priority and underserviced populations. At the expected volumes and scale, the Centre’s programs and services are projected to achieve breakeven or better, acknowledging that the Centre carries a variety of risks typical to all healthcare providers. Revenue will be reinvested into providing care for Ontarians.

Currently there are no plans to expand the Centre to other locations. However, the team intends to share and replicate its model once proven successful, to create high-quality outpatient care and support sustainability throughout Canada.

Schroeder Ambulatory Centre will build a collaborative and innovative work environment, an exceptional organizational culture, and will offer career development opportunities to help attract and grow healthcare professionals.