Pilot program in Barrie will make x-rays more accessible for LTC residents
Several local organizations are teaming up to make x-rays more accessible for residents in Barrie's long-term care homes.
"In the next 60 days, we will be piloting for one year, expediting patients coming from long-term care homes to come and have an x-ray. Typically they would have these done in their long-term care homes, and they would have to wait a few days to four weeks, so we're hoping that this will allow patients to get here faster," says RVH's imaging services director Heather Gillis.
Up to ten long-term care homes in Barrie will participate in the one-year pilot project announced by the province.
"It will eliminate long wait times. It will ensure timely transportation for those residents to the hospital to get that needed diagnostic imaging," says Jane Sinclair with the County of Simcoe.
Paramedic services will also be a big part of the program.
"An ambulance and paramedics will be assigned, and they will then pick up the resident from the long-term care home and transfer them to RVH, where they will be fast-tracked to get that diagnostic imaging so they can get the care they need and back to their home in a very timely way," says Sinclair.
RVH says other than hiring a registered practical nurse, they are simply looking at a different way to offer care.
"We will have a navigator meet the patient at the hospital, we'll bring them to medical imaging, register them have their x-ray done promptly, have our radiologist here to do the interpretation quickly to determine the next steps of care for the patient," says Gillis.
There are 26 long-term care homes in the county, ten in the city of Barrie, with just over 4000 beds combined. The pilot project will only operate in Barrie, but if successful, the program could be expanded in the coming years.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Budget 2023 prioritizes pocketbook help and clean economy, deficit projected at $40.1B
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.

Freeland's green economy spending aimed at competing with U.S. Inflation Reduction Act
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says clean energy and green technology spending may not have been the big-ticket items of the 2023 federal budget if it weren’t for the need to compete with infrastructure spending in the United States.
Federal government capping excise tax on alcohol after outcry
The increase in excise duties on all alcoholic products is being temporarily capped at two per cent starting next month instead of a planned 6.3 per cent increase.
opinion | The gun control debate in America has been silenced
In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, that saw children as young as nine years old shot and killed, the gun control debate is going nowhere, writes CTV News political analyst Eric Ham.
Was Stonehenge a giant calendar? New research suggests maybe not
Stonehenge's purpose has long been a mystery, with some researchers proposing that it may have been an ancient solar calendar. But now, new analysis suggests the calendar theory is unsubstantiated.
Kids would rather learn from smart robots than less-smart humans: new study
A new study published by Canadian researchers suggests that kindergarten-age children would rather be taught by a competent robot than an incompetent human.
‘Using waste material makes sense’: Mysterious artist Junko turns trash into giant sculptures
A mysterious, Montreal-based street artist named Junko is generating buzz in Metro Vancouver with futuristic, bug-like sculptures made from old car parts, scrap metal and tossed out shoes.
New research finds subtle brain changes in pre-symptomatic Alzheimer’s patients
A new peer-reviewed study from the Medical University of South Carolina report in Brain Connectivity has found individualized brain fingerprints which can help diagnose early Alzheimer's disease.
Hamilton family raising awareness about Strep A after sudden death of toddler
A Hamilton, Ont., family is hoping to raise awareness about Strep A after the tragic death of their two-year-old.