The Yorkton Regional Health Centre has just received a big addition to their services. The Health Foundation has purchased an additional Ultrasound machine for the hospital, its fourth, which will result in reduced wait times for patients waiting for a test.
The total cost of the equipment and renovations was $220,000. The money was raised by a combination of 74 businesses and over 1,000 individuals to allow for the purchase of the equipment, says Ross Fisher, Executive Director of the Health Foundation.
Maria McLaren, Technical Director of Diagnostic Imaging, says that with Ultrasound being the go-to test for many conditions, it's a machine that's needed as demand on the diagnostic imaging department increases. While many people think of babies when they hear the term Ultrasound, that's not the primary use in diagnostic imaging. McLaren says it's most often used to scan for injuries, look for cancers and cysts, and scan various different parts of the body for problems.
"We do all the body parts, ultrasound is a high demand modality and it is everywhere. It's becoming the choice in the medical imaging world because there is no radiation and it's mostly non-invasive."
Just buying the machine was only part of bringing it into the region, as it still needed someone to run it and a place to go, McLaren says.
"Renovations and staff were the two key components to getting this machine in... Space in the hospital is at a real premium, so we had to figure out how to make this work within our own walls," McLaren says.
Apart from $15,000 in renovations, finding enough space for the new machine required a creative approach to make room. McLaren notes that installing the machine displaced staff who were using the room as an office, and they had to move people around to make the new location fit.
She also says they were lucky to find an Ultrasound Sonographer, as it is a high demand profession nationally, and they are glad that hard work in recruiting the additional staff paid off.
The new equipment will allow the region to conduct approximately 2,500 additional Ultrasound examinations each year.
