New MRI at Dartmouth General Hospital expected to scan 400 patients a month

The first patients won't get to use it for another three weeks, but the Dartmouth General Hospital'sfirst MRImachine was officially unveiled Monday.

Sharon Hartling, the diagnostic imaging manager at the Dartmouth General said the plan was to operate the machine up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Expecting to scan 400 patients a month, 5,000 patients a year, and that's a conservative estimate," said Hartling.

"Those numbers are based on our current MRI scanners in the central zone, and this new scanner will be faster, so we're hoping to exceed those targets."

Premier Tim Houston used oversized scissors to cut a blue ribbon stretched across the imaging equipment, whose 12,000-kilogram magnet was delivered just before Christmas and lowered from the roof into a specially reinforced and isolated section of the hospital.

Houston stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the people who donated $2 millionto pay for the MRIthrough the Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation.

The province's share, $11.9 million,covered the cost of installing the machine, as well as staff salaries for the technicians who will operate it.

Houston said it is one of four new MRIs being installed in theHalifax region this year. Two will replace aging equipment at the Halifax Infirmary.

The fourth,a mobile MRI, being purchased by the QEIIFoundation, will be located at the Bayers Lake Community Outpatient Centre by the end of July.

Dr.Graham Joy, the head of radiology at the Dartmouth General Hospital, said having its own MRI will eliminate the need for inpatients to be transported to Halifax to undergo a scan, potentially speeding up diagnoses and ulimately saving money.

"EHS[Emergency Health Services]has to be contacted for a transfer, which is a very strained service, so that can lead to some time delays just because of their difficulty in finding time for everything that they're demanded to do," said Joy.

"And costs accrue there as well because it's not an inexpensive undertaking to pay for an ambulance back and forth."

Technicians are being trained to use the new unit. The hospital has started booking appointments for the MRI, starting June 17.

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