Imaging staff at Shuswap Lake Hospital are in celebration mode.
Thanks to $200,000 in joint funding from the North Okanagan Shuswap Hospital District and the Shuswap Lake Hospital Foundation, a promise that has been 10 years on the books is now a reality.
A third X-ray room has opened, not only making emergency X-ray service faster, but safer for patients and staff. It completes departmental renovations that began in 2007.
Located right across the hall from the emergency ward, the large room has ample space for an emergency response team with equipment such as a crash cart, and an ICU bed when necessary.
“It’s much bigger than the others in order to allow for movement around the room,” says Kim Mead, diagnostic imaging professional practice leader. “We’re not having to skinny past the wall.”
And, when imaging staff need help fast, it’s close at hand.
“Before, we had to take them (patients) all along the hallway and into the back of ER, and it was a long way away if we had to call for help,” says Mead.
Mead says imaging staff were performing approximately 20,000 X-ray exams per year with one general purpose room and one X-Ray room that was never meant to carry the volume.
That smaller room is now used for specialty procedures like gastro-intestinal exams, joint injections for pain management and other invasive procedures.
With renovations complete, diagnostic imaging now boasts a CT scanner room and three ultrasound rooms as well.