For many years, Manitoba was the only province in Canada without an acute stroke unit, leaving stroke survivors without immediate access to specialized care and intensive rehabilitation. In 2019, Shared Health announced a new 28-bed acute stroke unit and associated rehabilitation facility would take over the fourth and fifth floors of the Women’s Pavilion at the Health Sciences Centre, offering a centralized hub to help prevent stroke complications, reduce patient length of stay, and open up care beds for patients with other needs across Manitoba's healthcare system.

Shared Health retained ft3 to provide interior design services, including a deep refresh and reconfiguration of these floors, to accommodate the acute stroke unit programming. The design includes double-patient rooms, a gym space where patients can work with physiotherapists, and a kitchen specifically designed for use in occupational therapy to help assess how well a patient can move around in a home setting after being discharged.

Moreover, we created space outside the therapy kitchen, encouraging patients to be social and mobile, and participate in recovery promoting activities outside of their scheduled and structured therapy and rehabilitation sessions.

A significant component included upgrading 14 existing patient washrooms, one UTR and two shower rooms to facilitate full accessibility. Additional upgrades included heating, ventilation, lighting, asbestos removal, an upgraded nurse call system, and new sprinklers and elevators.

The project's construction reached completion in December 2023, and Shared Health anticipates that 80% of all stroke patients in Winnipeg will use the facility. The new unit will increase access to rehabilitation services for stroke patients regardless of severity, improve clinical and functional outcomes for clients, and reduce the burden on emergency departments.