health p.e.i. partnership with private summerside clinic aims to reduce mri wait times
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mlas tyler desroches, from left, and barb ramsay, join dr. guy boswall, health minister cory deagle and health p.e.i. coo corinne rowswell in announcing a partnership that will allow the health-care providers in the province to refer patients for an mri scan at a private clinic in summerside, rather than having to travel to moncton.
kristin gardiner
/
journal pioneer
summerside, p.e.i. — a new partnership between the province and a private summerside clinic has a goal of reducing wait times for islanders in need of a magnetic resonance imaging (mri) scan.
on aug. 4, health p.e.i. announced that they are joining forces with summerside diagnostic imaging centre, which has been doing scans for the past eight months.
“our group decided that there was a need, as we saw patients leaving p.e.i. to go to moncton to have mris done,” said dr. guy boswall.
“we felt that that was something that should be provided on prince edward island, so we sat down, made a plan. it took probably six to eight months to get to a point where we had the mri here, and we’re functioning.”
now, with the addition of a provincial partnership, the clinic will be conducting mri scans on patients referred to it by health p.e.i. and have the province pay for the scan, rather than those patients travelling to new brunswick for the appointment.
non-urgent cases
boswall said he is happy to partner with the province, and believes it will be a benefit to islanders.
“it certainly should help with wait times,” said boswall. “it means patients don’t have to leave prince edward island for what is a pretty basic diagnostic examination, at this point in time.”
dr. guy boswall hopes that a partnership between building with vision ltd. and health p.e.i., allowing the province to refer people to get an mri at summerside diagnostic imaging centre, will help reduce wait times for patients.
kristin gardiner
/
journal pioneer
an mri, he explained, is a machine that can image almost every part of a person’s body, looking at anything from an injury to cancer. the less time someone has to wait for a scan, the quicker a patient can get answers, peace of mind and treatment.
wait times for an mri depend on how urgent the need is. the province aims for a 14 day wait time for urgent conditions, 28 days for semi-urgent, and 84 days for those deemed non urgent.
currently, around half of urgent patients get an appointment in less than nine days, patients with semi-urgent or non-urgent conditions, meanwhile are expected to wait longer than the target: 38 days and 133 days, respectively.
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access to care
closing that gap for less urgent mris is exactly why health p.e.i. has spent the last few months working to make this partnership reality, said corinne rowswell, chief operating officer for the health authority.
“we’re starting to schedule next week,” she said. “if all things remain current, we anticipate by the end of the fiscal year, having that backlog cleared.”
health p.e.i. chief operating officer corinne rowswell, said that while wait times for urgent mri scans are above target, those with less urgant conditions find themselves waiting longer. now that health care providers can refer patients to a private clinic in summerside for an mri, she hopes the wait time gap will close.
kristin gardiner
/
journal pioneer
rowswell added that she is excited by the partnership and for islanders to have better access to the care that they need.
“the anxiety that people feel when they can’t access and don’t know when they’re gonna access it, i think is part of it too,” she said.
“knowing that we can tell them, when they’re being referred for an mri, that they can expect to get one in a timely fashion, it’s really meaningful for the health care providers … and their patients.”
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kristin gardiner is a reporter for the journal pioneer in prince edward island. she can be reached at kgardiner@postmedia.com.
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