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Saint Elizabeth Health Care
Founded in 1908 by four nurses in Toronto who began delivering home care by horse and carriage, Saint Elizabeth Health Care has spent more than a century...
Saint Elizabeth Health Care
Founded in 1908 by four nurses in Toronto who began delivering home care by horse and carriage, Saint Elizabeth Health Care has spent more than a century evolving into one of Canada's largest charitable health care organizations. Under Shirlee Sharkey, who has served as President and CEO since 1999, the organization has expanded from its Ontario base to serve communities across the country, nursing a workforce that now exceeds 9,000 employees and service providers — a headcount comparable to many acute-care hospitals. The organization operates across the full continuum of home- and community-based care: in-home nursing, personal support services, palliative and end-of-life care, rehabilitation, and remote care monitoring via telehealth platforms. Saint Elizabeth is also a significant provider of nursing education through its affiliated SE Career College of Health, and it invests directly in health care innovation via SE Health Futures, an internal unit focused on early-stage health tech pilots. The geographic footprint spans all Canadian provinces, with particular depth in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. As a registered charity, Saint Elizabeth does not manage a proprietary investment portfolio in the manner of a family office or foundation with an AUM figure — its revenue flows from government service contracts, private-pay clients, and philanthropic donations, with surplus reinvested into operations and research. The organization reported total revenue of roughly $400 million in its most recent publicly available filings (per the Canada Revenue Agency charity return). A notable operational event from the last 24 months: September 2023 saw Saint Elizabeth launch a dedicated home-based palliative care partnership with Covenant Health in Alberta, extending its end-of-life model into a new provincial health region. Structurally, Saint Elizabeth is distinct among large Canadian health care charities because it marries a commercial home-care provider's operational discipline with a social-enterprise constitution. It is not a grantmaking foundation. It does not steward a family fortune. Instead, its economic engine is the direct delivery of reimbursable care, and its investment activity — centered on workforce education, technology pilots, and service-line expansion — is funded by earned revenue rather than endowment draws, a model rare at this scale in the charitable sector.
General information
Firm type
other
Year founded
1908
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
Canada
City
Markham
Corporate office
Markham, Ontario, Canada
Principals
Shirlee Sharkey
President & CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Does Saint Elizabeth Health Care function as a family office or manage an investment portfolio?
No. Saint Elizabeth is a registered Canadian charity and not-for-profit corporation, not a family office. It does not manage a proprietary investment portfolio for a wealth-owning family. Its balance sheet is funded by government health contracts, private service fees, and donations, with operating surplus reinvested into care delivery, health tech pilots, and staff education rather than third-party investment funds.
How is Shirlee Sharkey's leadership intertwined with the organization's strategic direction?
Shirlee Sharkey has been President and CEO since 1999, making her one of the longest-tenured health care CEOs in Canada. Her leadership has steered Saint Elizabeth from a regional home-care provider in Ontario into a nationally scaled social enterprise that operates in every province. She has prioritized the integration of technology into community care — including telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and early-stage health innovation pilots — while maintaining the organization's charitable constitution.
What role does SE Health Futures play in the organization's operations?
SE Health Futures is Saint Elizabeth's internal innovation lab, designed to test and evaluate health care technologies — such as AI-driven wound care, virtual nursing assistants, and remote monitoring platforms — before broader organizational adoption. It functions as a real-world pilot environment rather than a venture fund, with tests funded from operating surplus and conducted alongside Canadian health technology startups and academic partners.
Does Saint Elizabeth make fund commitments or direct investments in external companies?
Saint Elizabeth does not operate as an institutional investor; it does not commit to venture capital funds or private equity vehicles. Its innovation engagement is operational, not financial: the organization runs pilots, licenses technology, and integrates tools into its care-delivery workflows. Direct equity investment in for-profit companies is not part of its publicly disclosed activities.
Where does the organization's geographic coverage and scale sit relative to other Canadian home-care charities?
Saint Elizabeth is among the largest not-for-profit home-care providers in Canada by both workforce size and daily patient reach — supporting over 18,000 people daily with more than 9,000 service providers and staff. Its service footprint extends across all ten provinces, with the deepest operational presence in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. Most comparably scaled home-care entities in Canada are for-profit or publicly traded, making Saint Elizabeth's charitable status exceptional at this size.
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