Residents in Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny and Tay are now able to have cardiac diagnostic procedures completed at their community hospital.

Midland’s Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) has partnered with Barrie’s Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) to begin offering echocardiography services. 

“In the first year of the partnership, we anticipate nearly 1,100 patients will be able to receive echocardiograms at GBGH, reducing their need to travel out of our area for this service,” said Gail Hunt, president and chief executive officer of GBGH. 

An echocardiogram is an ultrasound of the heart which produces two- and three-dimensional images of the heart structure and function. This low-risk imaging procedure can assist in the diagnosis of heart murmurs, valve function, cardiac masses, hypertension and heart disease. 

“We are very pleased to partner with RVH on this initiative, based on their depth of experience in cardiac care and for the benefit of providing this important service to our community. Offering echocardiograms at GBGH directly aligns with our strategic priority to grow our programming to align with community needs,” Hunt said.

The partnership, which launched on Oct. 5, will see an RVH cardiac sonographer conduct echocardiograms in GBGH’s diagnostic imaging department. The service will be available to GBGH inpatients and patients in the community who are referred by a physician. It will be provided at GBGH on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday each week.

“As the regional health centre, RVH is committed to providing exceptional care closer to home through important partnerships like this one with GBGH,” said Janice Skot, president and chief executive officer at RVH. “By leveraging the expertise of RVH’s regional heart program, patients can have great confidence in the skill and accuracy of the diagnostic study, without having to travel for care.”

GBGH and RVH have launched partnerships over the past three years to improve the quality of health care and increase the variety of services GBGH can offer to patients.