St. Joseph's Hospital is advancing to a new stage of its MRI project, which has seen fundraising and plans in the southeast over the past year. Now they're making plans for the design and eventual construction of the machine, which would expand Estevan's medical capabilities.
Corey Miller, CEO of Emmanuel Health, talks about the new steps they're taking to get that set up.
"We issued purchase orders this morning on the new MRI system. As well, we issued a purchase order for the new modular cassette room, which the MRI will go into, as well as a construction management contract for the construction project."
Miller expects the work to progress quickly as they're working with a few sources to get the MRI set up. He says a lot of work will be done during the thaw season, with construction starting this summer. Some of the items they need to work on include seismic soil testing and digging piles to hold the cement pad. The room hosting the MRI will be built off-site by SDI Canada and craned into the site, with connections to be made to the main building. The machine itself will be purchased from Siemens Healthcare Canada. That will end with the MRI itself being delivered sometime in the late spring or early summer of 2026, with hopes to finish the project around mid-year.
Besides operating the structure locally, Miller says they're also making sure the facility has as many local builders on the project as they can.
"If we're going to ask the community for support, we will be looking for our project to support the community every way we can, not just in the delivery of healthcare."
Miller says that SDI Canada has put in a number of MRI units across Canada. In previous projects, they've used local contractors as much as possible for different aspects of the job. That ranges from concrete work, electrical, HVAC, and more.
A big project like the MRI machine can have its risks, and one of those has just popped up from our southern neighbour. Miller noted that U.S. tariffs affect the cost of several products, including medical equipment and components, which would be used in an MRI deployment.
"That's why signing the agreements and getting some of our pricing locked in was really important to us. The sooner we can do this, the less impact or risk that is."
In terms of building the room, Miller says that while the unexpected can happen, he has confidence.
"There's always worries on delays that are created through construction projects, but we've had those discussions with the construction management team. They've got lots of extensive experience with this type of a build. I feel confident. Yeah, we're going to have some glitches that come up or things that come up as we connect. But, you know, we build that into our project timeline, and we push forward as quickly as we can to get the project ready."
Timing is one key issue for the project as the build will take months, and the later that the build is installed, Miller says that the MRI could have new and potentially better technology that allows the hospital to better use the MRI.
The St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation has a bit more work to do. With $5.2 million out of $6.5 million raised so far, Miller says they can start up the initial stages with what they have.
"We do have some operational readiness things like hiring technologists and getting our physician contracts in place to read those images, but we've started on that already; that's not stuff that we've left untouched."
The MRI project has found more support outside of donations from the community. Miller noted that local medical technicians, including some who are currently training, have expressed strong interest in training and operating the machine once it's installed.
"I want to take a lot of credit for it, but some of it did fall into our lap. We had people who are already working in the southeast corner. They were taking classes, what they call 'second discipline'. They're already working as imaging technologists, as a combined lab and x-ray tech, and they've been taking classes to become MRI techs. There's one MRI tech that lives in Weyburn, and I believe her husband works in Estevan, and they're looking at a relocation here. There's a technologist that works in southern Ontario that did some of her training here at St. Joseph's Hospital."
"That's what we're focusing on now is building a strong team that is really focused on serving the community of Estevan and the southeast corner here in Saskatchewan."
With his previous experience working for the Saskatoon Health Region and this being his fifth MRI project in Saskatchewan, Miller says he's excited to get the ball rolling.
The new MRI is expected to be online inside St. Joseph's Hospital by the summer of 2026. You can learn more about the project and how to donate here.