September 26, 2008 - Media Release

New ultrasound coming to regional hospital
Growing Care donations benefiting healthcare locally

Shown reviewing one of the demonstration models are radiologists Dr. Susan Thompson & Dr. Sanjeev Kaul of the Diagnostic Imaging Medical Team.

AMHERST, NS (September 26, 2008) – A new routine ultrasound was part of the Cumberland Health Care Foundation’s recent Growing Care campaign. Widely used to visualize an unborn baby as part of prenatal care, an ultrasound is used to identify many conditions that would be harmful to the mother and the baby. In 2007-08, there were 251 babies delivered at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre.

“We’re at that product testing stage,” said Diagnostic Imaging manager, Sandra Rose, “that’s where suppliers bring in different models of ultrasound units and the diagnostic medical team select the model that is the best fit for our facility and, of course, within our financial means”. The selection process for the new piece of equipment will run for several weeks with the delivery of the new unit anticipated before or early in the new year.

With the changing prices in the medical equipment industry there is a slight possibility that two units may be able to be purchased instead of one but it will be dependent on the model selected to best meet patient needs and what can be negotiated with the vendor. “We have the capacity for using another updated machine,” said Rose, “we were quite surprised at the drop in pricing from 2005 to 2008 – normally you’d expect to pay more, but the units have actually gone done in price.”

For other hospital patients, it is used to visualize internal organs, their size, structure, and any pathological lesions with real time tomographic images. The newer machine will have improved technology & imaging which will assist patients undergoing investigation for abdominal and breast cancer, blood clots and thyroid conditions. In the 2007-08 fiscal year over 4200 ultrasounds were performed at the regional hospital.

The Cumberland Health Care Foundation’s hospital campaign to raise $1.6 million of the approximate $2.5 million required for a third operating room and updated diagnostic imaging equipment came to a conclusion in June of this year.

The Echo cardiogram machine used in cardiac diagnosis was brought on line in early 2007 with close to 1200 echoes being completed in the 2007-08 fiscal year. The construction of the third operating room was completed in June 2006 along with the updating of equipment for all three rooms. Over 4,000 surgical patients (inclusive of day-surgery and in-patient) were treated in the 07-08 fiscal year. Now remaining after the selection and installation of the Ultrasound will be an updated x-ray machine.

“We’re happy to see things coming into fruition”, said Foundation chair David Wood, “for donors and volunteers, it’s nice to know that the money is being fully utilized to benefit healthcare now for hospital patients in need”.

The Cumberland Health Care Foundation is a registered Canadian not-for-profit charity dedicated to enhancing the provision of a high standard of health care within Cumberland County by raising funds and supporting new and improved services, programs, equipment and facilities.