Brockville General marks the arrival of the MRI scanner

Brockville – After months of hard work and preparation, Brockville General Hospital marked the successful delivery and placement of its magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner on Monday, April 29.

The 4.2-ton Siemens scanner was flown from Germany to Chicago before completing its journey to Brockville. On Monday, it was lifted by crane onto a temporary bridge built on site and then rolled into the side of the MRI suite through a purpose-built access hatch.

“This is an exciting day for Brockville General Hospital and everyone in our community to have the MRI scanner in place. Thank you to our staff, the Brockville and District Hospital Foundation, donors, and our partners at Siemens Canada and SDI Canada for making this major advancement in patient care a reality,” said Nick Vlacholias, President and CEO. “We’re looking forward to having the scanner operational later in May as we continue to train and build our capacity to start accepting local referrals in July.”

Brockville General is the first hospital in Ontario to use a medical-grade modular building for its MRI. Vlacholias said the fact the MRI was installed less than eight months after the groundbreaking ceremony is a validation of the decision to use the modular solution.

“We were able to prepare during the winter while the buildings were built off-site, meaning there was less noise and disruption for our staff and patients,” explained Al Page, Senior Project Manager. “The delivery of the suite and MRI scanner went exactly as planned thanks to the extraordinary coordination of our partners, enabling us to complete the project on time.”

“Now that the scanner is here, Siemens Canada will be on-site completing the installation and testing for the next 4 weeks,” said Joanne Sidorchuk, Director of Diagnostic Services. “Once that is complete, Siemens and our Brockville General team will connect the scanner to the hospital’s imaging software.”

Sidorchuk said Brockville General is working with other hospital partners in the region to prioritize patients from our community who are on their waitlists for an MRI. As we begin to accept referrals directly in July, these new referrals will be prioritized along with those patients still on waitlists elsewhere.