Women’s College Hospital is a leader in advancing women’s health and broadening health care access for all people in Canada.

We focus on improving health outcomes for everyone—aiming to ensure equitable care for those who face barriers. We listen to understand people’s lived experiences to provide dignified care regardless of age, race, background, gender identity or sexual orientation. We offer a different perspective on how to solve systematic gaps in Canadian healthcare—with a focus on care that is equal for all.

140+ years ago, Women’s College Hospital became the first place in Canada where women could study and practice medicine. This is when the breakthroughs began, and we haven’t looked back since. WCH is the only fully ambulatory, academic hospital in Canada that focuses on women’s health and equity for all. We are home to one of the only hospital-based research institutes in the world dedicated to women’s health—we are an incubator and testing ground for breakthrough solutions that can be replicated across Canada. 

We’ve been seeing things differently for 140 years.

Women’s College Hospital sees things differently. We know that patients want to get the care or procedure they need and return to their normal lives quickly. It’s why we don’t have beds. At WCH, we are renowned for ambulatory care–care that is appointment-based so patients come to see a specialist or have a day procedure and go home. For patients, it means getting effective and efficient care, and avoiding hospital stays.

At Women’s College Hospital, we keep patients out of the hospital.

Women’s College Hospital knows our healthcare system needs to change. High costs, hallway medicine and a lack of gender-focused research are pressing challenges threatening the health of Canadians today. 

We don’t accept the status quo and never have. Every day, we apply a sex and gender lens to everything we do. This started in 1883 when we provided women with the only facility in Canada to provide accessible medical training. A passion for equitable healthcare is embedded deep into our DNA, equity underpins everything we do at WCH. We know that when you focus on equity, you are creating a healthcare system that works for everyone. 

WCH is the first Canadian hospital to fully adopt a Learning Health System approach. This approach utilizes feedback and data to make improvements to patient care in real-time—not years from now. It’s an integration between research, clinical care, operations, and the community where everyone is engaging with a shared mission of continual improvement and learning across all programs, centres and institutes with the aim of impacting positive change for the best possible patient care.