$2M radiology room to speed up diagnosis at Lakeshore General
The Lakeshore General Hospital (LGH) in Pointe-Claire unveiled its new radiology room on July 27. The $2 million facility will allow the hospital to diagnose — and effectively treat — West Island residents more quickly, said the Lakeshore General Hospital Foundation’s managing director, Heather Holmes.
“We have the right machine, we (can) do faster diagnosis (and) put treatment plans in place faster,” Holmes said.
She said of the $1.7 million provided by the foundation for the project, $1.2 million was donated by the Eric T. Webster Foundation.
She also emphasized that this new room means West Islanders will no longer need to travel downtown for radiology procedures, as many of the services they sought in the city will now be offered in their own neighbourhood.
“Our patients would literally have to get in a cab with a nurse, travel downtown, suffer through the traffic and the wait times, which, when you have to have a procedure, it’s already a little bit unnerving,” Holmes said.
Now, patients will be able to receive services that require advanced radiology technology under the hospital’s roof, said Dr. Fadi Aris, the chief of the LGH’s medical imaging department. The live imaging features of the new X-ray machine, he offered as an example, will make it easier for the hospital to complete procedures such as inserting catheters during vascular access treatments for chemotherapy or unblocking the urinary tract ahead of surgery.
As the West Island population ages, Aris said, certain services such a dialysis are becoming more necessary. Rather than sending these patients downtown, the LGH will be able take care of them locally, only relying on other hospitals “for more complex procedures.”
“That will increase collaboration between hospitals, as well as provide better and faster service in the (Lakeshore General) Hospital,” Aris said.
Aris added that the machine will also assist the oncology department in taking biopsies and staging cancer, which he said will reduce surgical intervention, consequently reducing the risk of complications and hospitalization time.
Benoit Morin, the president and CEO of the Montreal West Island Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre, said this new facility is part of their attempts to provide residents with “immediate and profound” services across all departments. He listed surgery, nephrology, oncology, emergency and obstetrics as some of the departments that will be able to take advantage of the new machine.
During a tour of the space, Véronique Rodella, the hospital’s head of nuclear medicine and electrophysiology, explained that the new space is outfitted for surgery if needed, with the same ventilation, lighting and sterilization as operating rooms.
Aris also highlighted that the new equipment also serves a lower dose of radiation than the older Xray machine, something he said is important to the hospital.
The old machine will still be used, he said, but less often.