July 28 - Special Delivery : New MRI Arrives at Lakeridge Health Oshawa
July 28, 2009
Special Delivery: New MRI Arrives at Lakeridge Health Oshawa
Additional Magnetic Resonance Imager to begin treating patients in early September
(Oshawa) Lakeridge Health and The Oshawa Hospital Foundation today welcomed the arrival of an additional, new MRI at Lakeridge Health Oshawa.
The purchase of the much-anticipated machine was made possible through The Oshawa Hospital Foundation’s $4.85 million “A Picture of Health” fund-raising campaign and an Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care operating grant.
The new MRI is expected to begin treating patients in early September and will significantly reduce wait times, bringing care closer to home for many patients and their families.
“This is an exciting day for everyone at Lakeridge Health. Our current MRI services are operating at capacity with patients scheduled for MRI scans in the middle of the night and on weekends,” said Douglas Allingham, Chair of Lakeridge Health’s Board of Trustees. “We appreciate the Ministry’s support for this vital service and thank the Foundation and their donors for their generosity in making this happen.”
Lakeridge Health Oshawa performed 10,500 scans last year with its current MRI. Installed in 1997, it is the oldest clinical MRI still in operation in Ontario. While it still produces high quality examinations, it cannot perform many new diagnostic procedures such as breast biopsies of dense breasts.
The new Siemens Magnetom Verio unit 3.0 Tesla MRI is ergonomically safer for staff and has a larger opening to accommodate claustrophobic and larger patients. It can also scan larger areas of the body without requiring a change in patient position.
“Our current MRI has served us well but it has been operating on borrowed time,” said Lakeridge Health President and CEO Kevin Empey. “This additional, faster, more capable MRI will allow more patients to be diagnosed and treated closer to home.”
At a cost of $4.85 million, the new MRI marked the most ambitious fund-raising goal for The Oshawa Hospital Foundation’s Keeping the Pace Campaign.
“This project was so critically important to our community that we extended our annual campaign to 18 months in order to reach our target,” said Jim Szeman, CEO of The Oshawa Hospital Foundation. “We are grateful to this very giving community for once again showing their support in helping us provide the much needed funds to purchase this new MRI, which will benefit patients at Lakeridge Health Oshawa and the R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre.”
The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care announced in May an annual operating grant of $800,000 for the new MRI. Two (2) technologists have been hired full-time at Lakeridge Health and have taken advanced MRI training to help support the additional volume from the additional machine.
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For more information, please contact:
Leigh Winn-Kruck Carolyn McCutcheon
Communications Oshawa Hospital Foundation
905-576-8711, ext. 4317 905-576-8711, ext. 3849
lwinn-kruck@lakeridgehealth.on.ca cmccutcheon@lakeridgehealth.on.ca
News release July 28, 2009.pdf
Backgrounder July 28, 2009.pdf