You care about our community and our hospital and that’s why we’ve started this series - to connect with as many people as possible about what’s important: ensuring access to essential, life-saving care and equipment, and excellence in patient care. 

This post is extra special because we’re pausing to spotlight the Transforming Tomorrow campaign, which has just launched. We’re already at 80% of our goal - isn’t that inspiring? But it will take the support of everyone in our community to bring this campaign to life, and to bring the latest Diagnostic Imaging technology to STEGH.

Here’s what the campaign is all about:

Without our own MRI to serve the St. Thomas and Elgin County Community, nearly 5000 patients each year, our family members, friends and neighbours, are sent out of our community for these critical scans.

That’s because St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital has a high-volume Emergency Department – often the second-busiest in the southwest region - but it can be challenging for physicians to make diagnoses for complex conditions without the guidance of an MRI.

It will take the support of everyone in our community to bring this campaign to life, and to bring the latest Diagnostic Imaging technology to STEGH.

Incredible technologies like ultrasound, CT, and X-Ray are instrumental in our mission to deliver outstanding patient care - but an MRI helps medical professionals see the distinctions that can lead to a faster and more accurate diagnosis. This can help confirm the right treatment – and can make all the difference to a patient. 

This places additional burdens on out-of-town services - and on patients who must travel for care. The closest MRI is in London, but wait times are extremely long, and patients join the end of the line when they’re referred. This creates delays in diagnosis and treatment, giving time for disease to progress and complications to arise.

That’s why St. Thomas-Elgin County needs its own MRI and all of the associated care - to support better diagnoses for complex conditions, and to help loved ones stay close to home when it matters most.

By investing in our Transforming Tomorrow campaign, you will actively help in improving these critical healthcare services, which will in turn:

• Reducing the need for patients and families to travel outside our community for MRI scans 
• Provide patients with quicker diagnosis, faster access to treatment and improving recoveries 
• Improve stroke outcomes 
• Reduce the length of hospital stays

And we will have the capacity to attract and retain highly skilled medical professionals, keeping STEGH a leading provider of healthcare services.

This campaign is powered by individuals, families and companies of all shapes and sizes in St Thomas and Elgin County - including people just like you. 

We know we can count on our community to support this transformational change to our local health care and we acknowledge the deep trust that our donors have put in us and this project.

Stay tuned as we embark on this exciting campaign together. We look forward to sharing stories and updates as we work to bring these exciting, new Diagnostic Imaging technologies to our community.