Sudbury's Health Sciences North (HSN) has made significant gains in medical imaging turnaround times since it began collaborating with the Joint Department Of Medical Imaging (JDMI) which is part of the Toronto-based University Health Network.
HSN Chief of Staff Dr. John Fenton told the hospital's annual meeting this week that the time involved in getting all medical images viewed or interpreted by specialists has been significantly improved.
“HSN’s collaboration with the Joint Department of Medical Imaging, a multi-hospital department that serves five hospital sites belonging to the University Health Network, Sinai Health System and Women’s College Hospital, continues to provide quality and timely care to patients," Fenton told the meeting.
He said this means that patient images - X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and others - are seen and read by specially trained radiologists at a rate that has increased from 20 per cent in 2019 to more than 80 per cent in 2023.
"The average turnaround time for imaging reporting for patients in the Emergency Department decreased from seven hours in 2019 to one hour today," Fenton said.
He said this also improved the turnaround time for in-patients from 15 hours in 2019 to two hours today, despite a 31 per cent increase in the volume of images, said Fenton.
He said there was also improvement in getting images read for outpatients. It was 17 days in 2019 and today it is only six days, said Fenton.
"These improvements in more specific and reliable diagnostic imaging, shorter wait times in the emergency department, a reduced length of stay for inpatients, and quicker answers for outpatients," said Fenton.
Another collaborative effort underway, said Fenton, is the plan to create a digital record of all hospital patients across Northeastern Ontario, which he said is part of HSN's five year strategic goal to create and implement the Regional Electronic Medical Record.
This is important because not every patient in the North goes to the same hospital. Many patients have to travel to get enhanced care in other cities.
"The ONE initiative or ONE Health Information Technology System is a regional alignment of HSN and 23 of our partner hospitals across Northeastern Ontario in the utilization of one electronic medical record," said Fenton.
"The primary goal of this initiative is to enhance safe, evidence-based and patient-and family-centred care through a clinical transformation enabled by workflow redesign and supported by technology systems," Fenton added.
Hospital president and CEO Dominic Giroux said the implementation of the new digital system was slowed down by the pandemic, but is expected to fully come online in 2024.
Giroux said by having regional medical records, a patient's health information will be available to hospitals across the Northeast, meaning that patients will not need to retell their medical histories or repeat medical tests.
Len Gillis covers health care and mining for Sudbury.com.
