Hospitals across the country are seeing a growing number of patients with complex care needs—people living with multiple medical conditions and mental health challenges, managing long lists of medications and facing social and financial barriers that make recovery more difficult. These realities are reshaping health care and demanding new approaches to post-acute care, including both rehabilitation and complex continuing care.
At Sinai Health’s Hennick Bridgepoint Hospital, one of the largest hospitals of its kind in Canada, innovation is central to how care is delivered. Designed specifically for patients with complex needs, Hennick Bridgepoint integrates clinical care, research and emerging technologies to better support recovery and long-term outcomes.
Helping to lead this work is Dr. Jordan Pelc, Hennick Bridgepoint’s Hospital Medicine Site Director and Medical Informatics Lead, and the first academic hospitalist to work at both Mount Sinai and Hennick Bridgepoint Hospitals.
For Dr. Pelc, innovation in complex care begins with recognizing that these patients don’t fit neatly into one specialty.
“Patients are vulnerable and complex. Any organ system can be involved, and any psychosocial problem can present,” he says. “The real work is in bringing all of that together in a way that improves how people recover and return home.”
At Hennick Bridgepoint, that means integrating medicine, rehabilitation, mental health and social support into a more coordinated model—while also training a new generation of physicians to think differently about care.
“As a medical student, I didn’t ever step foot in a post-acute facility. That's something we’re changing.”
Under the leadership of Dr. Pelc and his colleagues, Hennick Bridgepoint has expanded its academic program, bringing dozens of medical students into rehabilitation and complex continuing care each year—areas historically under-represented in training. These learners are gaining hands-on experience managing complex patients while contributing to research and quality improvement.
Dr. Pelc and his colleagues are also rethinking how patients experience care. Their research shows that while care is delivered by teams, patients often experience it as a series of individual relationships—an insight shaping how providers communicate and collaborate to better support recovery.
Bridging the physical and the virtual
Hennick Bridgepoint has also embraced new technologies that are transforming rehabilitation. Since 2019, virtual reality (VR) has been used to support patients in a range of settings. For patients in palliative care, VR can offer a powerful mental escape, allowing them to experience places beyond their hospital rooms. In rehabilitation, it creates immersive environments where patients can practice movements and activities in engaging, interactive ways.
“Technology has opened up a beautiful new world of possibilities in complex care.”
The hospital is also introducing VR-based video game programs to help stroke patients with visual field loss retrain their brains and better navigate their surroundings.
“If someone is recovering from a stroke or other cognitive challenge, why shouldn't they have fun doing it?” he asks.
Together, these approaches are helping patients engage more actively in their recoveries while also giving care teams better tools to tailor treatments and measure progress.
The inspiration behind a gift that’s changing stroke recovery
Many of these innovations are made possible through donor support. For John Spina, that support is deeply personal. A longtime supporter of Sinai Health, John was inspired through a personal experience related to stroke and stroke rehab care to invest philanthropically.
In the Fall of 2025, John made a generous gift to support an innovative stroke rehab pilot led by Dr. Pelc to help advance new approaches that can benefit patients far beyond a single hospital.
A commemorative plaque in honour of Maria Di Giuseppe Spina, John’s late wife, in Mount Sinai Hospital’s MRI waiting area reflects the generosity of John and the Spina family, who are committed to compassionate care and medical innovation.
