Mobile X-ray service expanding to all N.B. long-term-care home residents

A mobile X-ray service is being extended to all long-term-care residents in New Brunswick.

The program started as a healthy-seniors pilot project in the fall of 2022 under the direction of Cindy Donovan, CEO of Loch Lomond Villa, a long-term-care complex in Saint John.

Donovan said having mobile X-ray capabilities in the long-term-care system is a dream she’s had since 2015.

“This new service performs the X-ray right at the resident’s bedside, in their own bedroom, with familiar staff assisting them,” she said.

The X-ray can be done within eight to 13 minutes “without any extra medication or without any restraint. That is what person-centred care is about.”

During the pilot, from May 2022 to the end of March 2023, Donovan said the mobile service was provided to 16 participating sites.

More than 500 X-rays were completed during that time, she said, and only 17 residents that required the service needed to be transferred to the hospital afterwards.

The service will be offered through the extra-mural program, a home and community-based health care service run by the Department of Health.

The expansion is being funded by $1.1 million from the provincial government, according to a news release.

Health Minister Bruce Fitch said being able to do the X-rays in a resident’s room is much less invasive than having to bundle them up, put them in a car or ambulance and have them wait in an emergency room.

He said there will be seven X-ray units each requiring its own vehicle. 

Diagnostic imaging technologists will be provided by Horizon Health and Vitalité Health networks, the release said. 

Fitch said the program will require “a ramp-up in staffing” and additional technicians will be trained.

Eventually, Fitch said the services will hopefully be able to attend to seniors living at home, but initially the mobile units will just be serving nursing homes and special care homes.

“Caring for seniors was one of the pillars of our provincial health plan so we’re pleased to be seeing these types of initiatives to … help seniors age in place,” said Fitch.

This story was originally published in CBC News on May 29, 2023.