It serves the residents of Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario, and Nunavut as both a teaching hospital and as a research centre.

Adjoined to the west of HSC is the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Health Sciences, a complex of ten buildings.

The Cadham Provincial Laboratory is located next door to the hospital and is the main research and investigative arm of the government of Manitoba for infectious disease.

[2] HSC also hosts the province's first and only hospital-based heliport which receives critical patients requiring helicopter transport.

[9] Named after local businessman and fundraiser Hubert Kleysen, the $25-million project was announced in June 2005 and completed in 2012.