CT scanner to be ready Aug. 5

It’s official—the CT scanner at La Verendrye Hospital here will be fully operational on Tuesday, Aug. 5.
Patti Johnson, manager of diagnostic imaging for Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc., said yesterday that work on the CT scanner room is continuing in preparation for the new equipment, which is scheduled to be delivered July 23.
“It will take a week for it to be set up and calibrated. The application specialist will be here Aug. 5 for the start of the CT scan,” she noted, adding she believes the first patient to receive a scan with the new equipment is scheduled for that day.
Johnson explained that since the Toshiba Aquilion 64-slice CT scanner was ordered back in late January, work has been ongoing to prepare the room to house it, as well as an adjoining control/observation room from which staff will operate it.
The arrival of the machine has been dependent on when the rooms are ready.
Throughout the spring and now summer, the rooms have been renovated and important elements, such as lead shielding, have been installed.
“They’re painting and putting flooring down for the final touches, the air conditioner still needs to go in—just some of the final things that need to happen,” Johnson said of the current work.
“But everything is on schedule, and we’re excited,” she enthused.
Johnson said the diagnostic imaging department also is in the process of lining up bookings for the CT scanner in anticipation of the Aug. 5 start date.
“Some of the doctors, if the cases are non-urgent, are sending the requisitions to us and we’re just getting organized to start booking people,” she explained.
CT (or computed tomography) is a medical imaging method in which digital geometry processing is used to generate a three-dimensional image of the inside of an object from a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images taken around a single axis of rotation.
This will be used as a more precise X-ray to takes images of everything from complex fractures to tumours.
The CT scanner was made possible through the “Just Imagine” fundraising campaign—a drive held in 2006-07 during which district residents pledged more than $1.5 million in the course of six months.
While Riverside initially had hoped to have it up and running by the end of December, it did not receive formal approval for the CT scanner from the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care until last fall.
Riverside then put out a request for proposals for a 64-slice CT scanner, with the Toshiba model being ordered in late January.