Media Release
Grand opening celebration held for new MRI suite at Grace Hospital
New building to be named after local philanthropists
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Construction is complete on the new MRI Suite at Grace Hospital, and the facility has been open and fully functional since mid-April. Today, those associated with the project came together to celebrate the achievement with a grand opening party.
"Adding access to important services, like the MRI, to community hospitals like the Grace help bring health services closer to home," said Milton Sussman, president and chief executive officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA). "Being able to use community hospitals as a home base is important for Winnipeggers and we are committed to improving not only the quality and availability of the services we offer, but where they are offered."
MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, is a vital diagnostic tool that produces high-resolution images to help health professionals diagnose a number of health problems ranging from injuries, to aneurisms to stroke. The new MRI at Grace Hospital will see approximately 3,000 scans performed annually and, since opening in April, 2016, has already conducted more than 500 scans.
The new MRI scanner is a high-end device that enables health professionals to assess increasingly complex cases and diseases. MRI scanners have become standard diagnostic tools for many diseases and are extremely helpful in establishing diagnoses and in planning and monitoring treatments. They provide a highly sensitive, non-invasive view into the human body and are able to detect even the smallest changes. The addition of this new scanner responds to the growing need for this kind of diagnostic technology and will help to diagnose and treat patients with increasingly complex symptoms.
"Having additional capacity to perform this MRI scans will improve the capacity of the system across the region," said Dr. Marco Essig, medical director of radiology and diagnostic imaging with the WRHA. "As we learn more about injuries and illnesses we are presented with increasingly complex patients and it having the most modern, sensitive tools to help us diagnose and treat those conditions facilitates the best patient outcomes."
The construction of the MRI Suite began in May 2015 and cost $10.5 million. The Province of Manitoba funded the project, with support from the Grace Hospital Foundation's "Tomorrow's Grace Capital Campaign." The Foundation campaign raised $6 million in total to support both the construction of the MRI Suite as well as the new Emergency Department at Grace Hospital, which is currently under construction (scheduled to open late 2017). The Foundation provided $1 million of the money raised to the MRI Suite and $5 million was given to the new Emergency Department.
Philanthropists Edward and Marjorie Danylchuk provided $3.25 million to the campaign, the largest ever one-time gift to a Winnipeg community hospital. In acknowledgement of their generosity, the MRI suite has been named the "Edward & Marjorie Danylchuk MRI Building".
"We are more than pleased to support the Grace," said Edward Danylchuk. "They have taken good care of us, our children and our grandchildren. The Grace is so important to the community and if we can help support health and wellness we are happy to do so."
