The heart of diagnostic excellence: St. Mary’s first MRI machine elevates care across Region
Dan Courtland takes a moment to sit and chat with a patient before she’s brought into the new, donor-funded MRI suite at St. Mary’s General Hospital.
The patient has a pacemaker in her heart, meaning MRI scans are typically dangerous for her. A slight case of claustrophobia complicates matters further.
But Dan, the MRI team lead at St. Mary’s and Grand River, is there to assuage her fears.
He tells her that with care and adjustments, the magnet at St. Mary’s can safely operate with her pacemaker. The diameter of the bore – the tube-like opening in the middle of the magnet – is 70 centimetres instead of the typical 60, offering extra breathing room to offset her dislike of confined spaces.
The patient goes into the whirring cylindrical magnet. Before she knows it, the scan is over.
“I find that the interaction you have with the patient before their scan translates to (how well) they do during their scan,” Dan says. “Positive patient interactions (equals) better results.”
Slashing wait times with an integrated program
Dan manages the integrated MRI team at St. Mary’s and Grand River Hospital, which operate the magnet jointly. The two sites use the same equipment, radiologists and staff to ensure patients throughout Kitchener-Waterloo receive scans in a consistent and timely fashion.
Having the MRI live at St. Mary’s has already made an indelible impact on wait times, decreasing the delay for low-priority scans from more than seven months to five.
Wait times vary based on the urgency assigned to the scan, with P1 cases taking top priority and P4 ranking lowest. The goal is to get wait times for P4 cases down to 28 days.
Lisa Routhier, manager for medical imaging at Grand River and overseer of the MRI program at both hospitals, expects to reach that target by March 2025.
“Before the magnet at St. Mary’s went live, we were at a point where we were not booking some exams,” Lisa says. “Now, when we call patients to book appointments, the sense that we get is relief."
A lot of patients, especially in the P4 group, have waited a long time for their scans.
- Lisa Routhier
The MRI at St. Mary’s has scanned roughly 15 patients per day, or about 1,200 patients overall, in its first three months of use. Scans last anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes, depending on what part of the body needs imaging.
The generosity of a community
The MRI was purchased through a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign between St. Mary’s and Grand River.
Community donations covered the price tag of the MRI, plus some of the construction costs required to make room for the magnet on the hospital’s main floor.
The result? “The nicest MRI suite I’ve ever seen,” Dan says, marveling at the bright, spacious rooms.
The impact of community generosity is seen daily through MRI patients, like the woman with the pacemaker and claustrophobia who was calmed by Dan’s words.
“This patient had been searching around for several weeks trying to get an important scan done,” Dan says. “We were able to get her in and accommodate her. And she was quite happy about that."
So, to donors, I’d like to say: thank you for making this a reality.
- Dan Courtland
