RIH Foundation unveils new ultrasound procedure room

A new ultrasound procedure room at the Royal Inland Hospital will make a big difference for patients, nurses and doctors alike.

The room, located on the second floor of the hospital in the diagnostic imaging department, is a major upgrade from the former location which barely fit a patient and a doctor.

“It was small room. It didn’t allow for extra people to come into the room,” said Kim Perris, Director of Diagnostic Imaging. “We couldn’t move the ultrasound machine from one side of the bed to the other.”

The new room was previously unused space. With a generous donation by The J.R. & Sheila McMillan Family Trust, the room was able to be renovated for several different procedures including breast localizations, biopsies and transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) which is a test that takes a picture of your heart.

The previous room was deemed too small to perform TEE and breast biopsies by the Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation Program.

“This room gives us the space we need to have our patient in the room, a physician in the room, a nurse in the room, and our technologist in the room,” said Perris. “A lot of procedures we do in here, we may use certain equipment like needles, tubes, wires that are all sterilized, so we want to make sure that there is adequate space to walk around the room without contaminating anything.”

Through a separate donation, the foundation was also able to purchase a new ultrasound machine that will be used in the room when needed.