These unique programs and services span the complete continuum of care and serve people throughout British Columbia. Our populations of emphasis include:

• Cardio-pulmonary risks and illness
• Renal risks and illness
• Mental illness
• Specialized needs in aging
• HIV/AIDS
• Urban health

People with Cardio-Pulmonary Risks and Illness
The Heart Centre at St. Paul's Hospital is BC’s most comprehensive referral centre for patients with heart disease, providing leading programs in cardiac diagnostics, coronary intervention, heart surgery and electrophysiology. The Healthy Heart Program is an innovative wellness program for people at risk for heart attack and stroke, and for those who have suffered a heart attack or recently undergone heart surgery. The Heart Centre has achieved many “firsts” in the treatment of heart disease, and is the only centre in the province to provide a number of complex procedures. It performs 33 per cent of all cardiac surgeries in BC and about 27 per cent of BC's most serious or life-threatening cases. Sixty per cent of St. Paul's cardiac surgery patients live outside the Vancouver Coastal Health region.

People with Renal Risks and Illness
Providence Health Care’s Renal Program provides comprehensive inpatient and ambulatory care services for people with chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney disease, including transplantation and dialysis. The largest kidney treatment, research and education program in BC, it serves patients living within the Vancouver Coastal Health region as well as many from throughout BC and the Yukon. It is also home to the provincial Renal Pathology service and the BC Provincial Renal Agency. Providence Health Care also operates community dialysis units in Vancouver, Sechelt, Squamish, Powell River, North Shore and Richmond.

People with Mental Illness
The Mental Health Program provides a range of coordinated emergency, inpatient, ambulatory and provincial services for people with a serious mental illness. Providence Health Care handles 85 per cent of the most severe mental-health emergency patients in the Vancouver Coastal Health region. The St. Paul's Hospital Eating Disorders Program is the provincial referral centre for adults with disordered eating. The Pain Program provides interventions available nowhere else in BC for this difficult-to-treat condition.

People with Specialized Needs in Aging
Providence Health Care provides a wide variety of residential and medical services for elders. Five sites are home to more than 700 residents who require medical and personal assistance to cope with the activities of daily living. These sites have adopted the Eden Alternative—a commitment to improving elders’ social and physical environments. Providence also offers acute care services such as geriatric assessment, geriatric medicine and geriatric psychiatry. Rehabilitation for older adults from across BC who are recovering from stroke or amputation is offered at Holy Family Hospital. In coming years the former St. Vincent's Hospital site will be redeveloped into a Campus of Care where seniors will be able to "age in place" rather than move as their care needs increase.

People with HIV/AIDS
St. Paul's HIV/AIDS and Addiction Program is the largest comprehensive program of its kind in Canada, providing 11 per cent of all the total hospital care given to HIV-positive persons in the country. The program is also the headquarters of the national and provincial offices of the Canadian HIV Trials Network, which facilitates clinical trials and runs an expanded access program for antiretroviral drugs. The program also distributes antiretroviral therapy to the province of BC and monitors HIV-related outcomes as part of the mandate of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. The Centre for Excellence is housed at St. Paul's and is Canada's largest HIV/AIDS research and treatment program.

Urban Health
Urban Health addresses the diverse needs of city-based populations with complex medical and surgical conditions. It delivers coordinated critical care, including surgery, medicine, intensive care, palliative and maternity, highly specialized clinics, same-day surgery and emergency services. Social conditions in some downtown neighbourhoods lead to health problems like HIV, Hepatitis C, malnutrition and drug and alcohol-related illnesses. St. Paul's plays a strong role in caring for the socially disadvantaged, serving medically/socially complex populations (HIV positive, substance abuse or substance dependent patients and patients with no fixed address).