Leading the way in medical imaging innovation

When we need care in a hospital, most people think about visiting the Emergency Department after a fall, having surgery to replace a bad knee or visiting a newborn grandchild.

What’s not often top of mind, however, is going to the hospital for a routine x-ray, ultrasound, CT scan or MRI. That’s typically because of the longer wait times associated with accessing these services in a hospital. While this might have been the case in the past, Mackenzie Health continually strives to lower wait times for patients, with patients receiving a scheduled appointment within days.

Mackenzie Health supports patients across western York Region, an area north of Toronto, Ontario, at two full-service hospitals, each with state-of-the-art medical imaging capabilities and an expert team of radiologists at both sites ready to serve the community’s needs. Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital opened in June 2021, joining Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital as Mackenzie Health’s second community hospital, doubling the organization’s capacity for medical imaging services. In 2022, Mackenzie Health performed more than 290,000 medical imaging tests between both hospital sites.

The Medical Imaging department at Mackenzie Health also offers an improved patient experience from arrival to discharge. Checking in for appointments is quick – typically under 30 seconds with no waiting in line. That’s because patients have the option of e-checking in from home or by using the self-serve kiosks at the hospital to receive the step-by-step directions they need to get to their appointment.

The 30,000 sq ft. Medical Imaging department at Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital also offers dedicated waiting areas for most procedures and a separation between inpatient and outpatient services. Patients coming into the hospital for a scheduled MRI will use dedicated outpatient waiting areas and routes, in keeping with infection prevention and control best practices.

At both of Mackenzie Health’s hospitals, state-of-the-art equipment, including high-definition CT and MRI scanners, help our expert team of fellowship-trained radiologists, specializing in a number of disciplines, diagnose injuries and diseases like cancer earlier and with pinpoint accuracy. They then deliver the information our patients and health care providers need to make the best, personalized treatment decisions. This all supports the goal of helping patients recover faster so they can get home sooner.

Patients also experience the convenience of managing their appointments, filling out pre-screening forms and accessing their results on their desktop or mobile device through MyChart, an online platform that puts patients in control of their health information. With online access to view and share their scans and images from x-rays, ultrasounds, CTs, MRIs and other diagnostic imaging tests through an innovative partnership between Mackenzie Health and PocketHealth, patients can be more involved in their own care.

Patients no longer need to visit the hospital in person to obtain a CD or hard copy of their images, saving them time and money. They can also view images from other participating hospitals and x-ray clinics and share their images directly with the primary care physician or specialist who requested the test. This means care teams can access results sooner so they can reach a diagnosis and determine a patient’s course of treatment that much faster.

Technology is changing our ability to care for patients in remarkable and hugely beneficial ways. In the future, what we do now in operating rooms will be done in an intervention suite because the lines between imaging and surgery are blurring. The good news is these advances allow physicians to focus on the patient and let the technology enable care.

Continuing to invest in the latest in medical imaging technology is just one of the ways Mackenzie Health is committed to providing an excellent care experience for our patients.