Following a three-year fundraising campaign by the Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital Foundation, a new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine was delivered to the Orillia hospital on Monday.
The campaign began in 2020, and contributions from various community members, as well as a $500,000 donation from the Swinimer family earlier this year, culminated with the delivery of the new MRI machine.
Noah Wortsman, a radiologist and chief of diagnostic imaging at OSMH, said the hospital is grateful for the community’s support in getting the new equipment.
“This has been a line item that we've been actively pursuing for a couple of years now,” Wortsman said. “It's a huge community effort, and we're really thankful to the community, and particularly Bill and Sue (Swinimer), for really pushing us over the edge and getting it done.”
Successful delivery of our new MRI scanner! #weadaptandadvance #weareonecommunity #osmh pic.twitter.com/sLFKMaMGvX
— OSMH (@OSMH_News) June 26, 2023
The hospital’s current MRI machine has been in operation since 2007 — a "very long time" for such a piece of equipment, Wortsman said — and has been near the end of its useful life for a couple years now.
Difficulties with sourcing parts, machine downtime, and other issues have led to the current machine becoming less and less reliable, Wortsman said, which has occasionally led to sending patients out of town for MRI services.
“(The year) 2007 is a long time ago in terms of electronics and medical imaging, so while we have had one going … it's been 'end-of-life' for more than a couple of years now, and we've been kind of keeping it alive as well as we could until we could finally get a replacement,” he said.
The new machine, beyond replacing the current one, comes with a number of upgrades that should make it more effective and comfortable for hospital patients.
For one, it is a faster and less claustrophobic unit, Wortsman said.
“MRI examinations are very lengthy and time-consuming, and being inside them is claustrophobic for many patients, so anything that can speed (it) up … is helpful for the patients; it's helpful for our community in terms of getting through that backlog that much faster,” he said.
“This one will be a less claustrophobic unit, so hopefully some of those patients, who previously would have had trouble on our (MRI) and had to go to Barrie, for instance, will be able to do that here.”
The new machine comes with additional capabilities that enable it to perform more services, as well.
“It also opens up a number of services that we can provide,” Wortsman said. “One of the things that we have not been doing, for instance, is prostate MRIs, and it's because the magnet that we have currently is not adequate for that. That is something that we can do with the new MRI that we would not have previously been able to do.”
In total, the new machine — along with its purpose-built, shielded room, installation, etc. — cost $3.7 million, Wortsman said, noting the machine’s magnet weighs around 9,000 pounds.
He is unaware of an exact timeline for the new MRI machine coming online, but said the new machine and old one will likely work in tandem for a period before the older unit is decommissioned.
