Back in 2015, members of the the Kelowna General Hospital’s four Auxiliaries began raising funds for a CT Scanner.
In less than two years, the volunteers gathered $1.9 million through their work at the KGH restaurant, gift and coffee shops, as well as catering operations in Peachland and Winfield and sales at the Rutland Thrift Store.
On Thursday, the KGH Foundation revealed what all that money bought: a state-of-the-art CT Scanner for the emergency room and equipment to support the diagnostic machine.
“The new CT Scanner is a very important acquisition for our hospital in commitment to advance overall patient care,” KGH Acute Health Service Administrator Andrew Hughes said. “Not only does it allow us to image critical patients sooner and more safely, there is less demand for the two other CT Scanners we currently have at KGH.”
The scanner can capture three dimensional images of a body part and isolate it for diagnosis. Software it runs with has been designed to pick up gout and kidney stones, according to KGH diagnostic imaging manager Pam Hoeschle.
KGH becomes the only other hospital in B.C. to have three CT Scanners other than Vancouver General Hospital.
It will be located in the emergency room at KGH.