Surgical unit manager, Carol Hryniuk, demonstrated some the newly introduced HD scope technologies in the procedural room at the new Endoscopy Department in Lloydminster Hospital. - Andrea Nicholl Photo
By Andrea Nicholl
The Lloydminster Hospital has expanded its range of scope procedures with the introduction of a new Endoscopy Department.
The new department has benefitted local health care by allowing residents to stay closer to home and helping to elevate pressures with state-of-the art technologies and increased staff training.
“Having high-level equipment saves patients from travelling to larger centres for their scopes procedures, which means less down-time from work and less time away from family,” LRHF executive director Georgina Altman, in a release. “The scopes allow surgeons to address precancerous issues in patients, which is saving lives. They can make accurate and timely diagnoses and offer treatment before additional concerns arise.”
The Lloydminster Region Health Foundation invested over $465,000 into new technologies for the Endoscopy Department, helping aid the purchase of six Colonscopes, used to view the large bowel, four Gastroscopes, which allow surgeons to view the patient’s esophagus and stomach and one pediatric Gastroscope, used for children and small patients.
“We’ve always had the technology, this is just an advancement in that technology as it’s progressed,” said surgical unit manager, Carol Hryniuk.
“It’s really powerful to have this type of technology in Lloyd,” she said, adding the department is open three days per week and sees an average of 15 procedures completed each day.
The LRHF’s investment accounted for a portion of the $1.2 million Endoscopy Department project, which reached final completion in October 2009. In addition to the new scopes, the project also saw the installation of new high-definition screening systems (monitors and towers) and the construction of four patient care rooms, a waiting room and a pressurized sterilization area.