Today, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (St. Joe’s) unveiled a new, state-of-the-art CT suite housed within the emergency department. St. Joe’s is the only hospital in the region to have a dedicated CT scanner in the emergency department, which will help patients get the scans they need sooner, reducing wait times between arrival, diagnoses and treatment.  

“We are committed to finding innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of our community, and that includes enhancing our emergency services by adding this CT suite to our Emergency Department,” said Mike Heenan, President, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. “The addition of this CT scanner will enable us to deliver faster diagnoses, and ensure our patients receive the best possible care when they need it most.”   

More than 65,000 patients visit St. Joe’s emergency department each year, making it Hamilton’s busiest. Of those, more than 14,500 patients require a CT scan for diagnoses, and this has been growing year over year.

“By having a CT scanner and suite right in our Emergency Department, we’re reducing travel time and the demands on our portering team. With the help of our diagnostic imaging technologists and radiologists, we’ll be able to understand the nature of our patients’ illnesses or injuries sooner, so we can create the best care plans in less time, and that matters in the ED, when sometimes every second counts” says Dr. Erich Hanel, Interim Chief of Emergency Medicine at St. Joe’s.  

The CT scanner was funded through the hospital’s capital budget, while the suite to house the CT scanner was made possible by St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation who brought together a community of donors to support its development.   

“When the Hospital asked our Foundation to fundraise for this project, we didn’t hesitate for a moment. We felt that having a CT in the ED just made sense,” said Sera Filice, President & CEO, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation. “Our generous community of donors came together to raise more than $1.3 million which supported the development of the suite. We are so grateful for the support to make this project possible.”   

While the CT scanner will primarily serve ED patients, it will also add capacity for screenings through the Ontario Lung Screening Program, a Provincially funded program for people at high risk of getting lung cancer.