JGH History: 1980s
1980
- The Community Geriatric Assessment Unit is established.
- The hospital, through its Patient Representative, drafts a Statement of Principles outlining the rights and responsibilities of patients.
- The Division of Geriatric Medicine is established under the joint auspices of the Departments of Medicine and Family Medicine.
- The Mirabel Conference is held to permit lay leaders, medical staff and administrative staff to discuss anticipated changes in health care delivery during the 1980s.
1981
- JGH Hope & Cope is established under the Auxiliary's umbrella to use specially trained volunteers (many of whom are cancert survivors) to support and counsel cancer patients and their families.
1982
- The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit earns international recognition for the survival rate of newborns weighing as little as 2.2 lbs.
1983
- The Department of Nursing implements a new system of Primary Nursing.
1984
- The McGill University Menopause Clinic opens at the JGH.
- The Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research opens Canada's first HIV/AIDS Bio-containment Laboratory to test tissue samples and to conduct research into the newly recognized and rapidly spreading disease of AIDS. This small facility is significantly enlarged and upgraded in the 1990s and 2000s, eventually becoming a leading international centre in scientific investigation into HIV/AIDS.
1985
- A ground-breaking ceremony marks the culmination of the fundraising campaign, with $26.7 million raised.
- The Herzl Family Practice Centre establishes a Teenage Health Unit with a 24-hour hotline.
1986
- The Division of Genetics is established within the Department of Medicine.
1987
- The JGH becomes first hospital in Canada to perform balloon valvuloplasty, a procedure to unblock clogged arteries.
- The federal government designates an AIDS laboratory at the JGH as a site for studying HIV blood samples from across the country.
1988
- The Bloomfield Centre for Research in Aging opens at the hospital's Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research.
- The hospital appoints a clinical ethicist.
1989
- A fully mature JGH Hope & Cope becomes an independent organization within the JGH.