Dartmouth General takes delivery of massive magnet for its first MRI suite
Having its own MRI should reduce waiting times for hip and knee surgeries
The Dartmouth General Hospital is one step closer to opening its first-ever MRI suite.
On Friday, a crane lifted the unit's 12,000-kilogram magnet from the hospital parking lot, through an opening in the roof and onto the reinforced floor that will be home to the $2-million diagnostic imaging device.
Wearing a Santa Claus suit for the occasion, the president of the hospital's foundation, Stephen Harding, called it "the best day ever."
"What a great Christmas present, delivered early," Harding told CBC News following the slightly delayed lift. "They tried yesterday but it was too windy, so today the conditions were perfect."
"It was quite a feat to have this 26,000-pound MRI magnet lowered into the hospital [but] it all went according to plan."
Although the foundation is paying for the hardware, the province is picking up the $4-million cost of building the room the magnet is now in. The floor had to be reinforced to handle the weight of the unit and the entire room now needs to be sealed in a copper shell.
Harding said if all goes well, the unit should be in operation by April.
He said a "special orthopedic package" the foundation purchased with the machine will allow the hospital's orthopedic unit to better prepare for the procedures it does.
"We're the site that does the majority of the scheduled hip and knee replacements in [the Halifax Regional Municipality] and we have the MRI now that will have the orthopedic add-on package," said Harding. "It will allow our orthopedic surgeons to do a 3D image and rotate the hip or knee and, you know, even provide better precision when it comes to placement of the implant."
According to the Nova Scotia government's surgical wait times web page, patients of the six surgeons who perform hip and knee replacements in Dartmouth can expect to wait from one month to a year for an initial consultation, and from two months to a year and a half afterwards for their surgery.
Harding said providing faster diagnostic information at the hospital should be able to lower wait times.
Patients currently wait an average of 37 days for a bone or joint MRI in a Halifax region, according to the wait time web page.
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