St. Joseph's Health Centre

St. Joseph’s Health Centre, a part of Unity Health Toronto, is a community teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto, serving the communities of West Toronto. St. Joe’s is a 400-bed hospital providing acute surgical services for 17,000 cases per year in the fields of Thoracics, Hepatobiliary, Bariatric, General Surgery, Orthopedics, Urology, Gynecology, ENT, Plastics, Dental, and Ophthalmology.

Beyond the operating room, the Department of Anesthesia at St. Joe’s, with support from anesthesia assistants, provides service for diagnostic imaging procedures, electroconvulsive therapy, cardioversions and endobronchial ultrasound procedures. A registered nurse practitioner helps the Department oversee a busy acute pain service, managing PCA, regional nerve blocks and epidural infusions for postoperative patients. Anesthetists also staff a pre-admission clinic every weekday. The Family Birthing Centre at St. Joe’s sees approximately 3300 deliveries each year and is supported by a Level 2C neonatal intensive care. The epidural rate for labour is roughly 80%.

The Department of Anesthesia has a long history of affiliation with the University of Toronto and provides training for residents in anesthesia including core rotations in thoracic anesthesia. Additionally, medical students rotate through the Department on both elective and core rotations.

Chief of Anesthesia: Dr. Robert Cirone
Resident Coordinators: Dr. Laura Bosco and Dr. Michael Baxter
Medical Student Coordinator: Dr. Bernard Ma