The long-anticipated modular MRI project at St. Joseph’s Hospital has officially taken its first step, with geotechnical soil testing now underway.
Candace Kopec, the executive director at St. Joseph’s Hospital, said SDI Canada is leading the project, and ParklandGEO was on-site this week to conduct the testing.
“They were here, both our project manager from SDI Canada as well as ParklandGEO, to do the soil testing,” Kopec said. “It’s really exciting. It’s been an interesting year of community support—they’ve been incredible to help us raise the majority. So I think we’re at over $5.3 million of the $6.5 million required to complete the project.”
She said they had enough raised for the down payment on both the modular unit and the MRI, which gave them the confidence to move forward without delay.
“We just wanted to communicate to the community—because they’ve been so incredible in supporting us—we just want to provide updates to let everyone know where we’re at."
The soil testing took place near the hospital’s helipad, which is the tentative site for the modular unit. Kopec said the preferred location is a green space between the EMS living quarters and the boiler room, directly adjacent to the CT scanner for ease of patient care.
“That location will depend on the results of the soil testing. They’re coming back in a week to look at the results and water levels. We’ll touch base again then and determine the next steps.”
As the work took place near the helipad, the hospital had to initiate a temporary service disruption. However, Kopec emphasized that patient care would not be affected in the event of an emergency.
“If there was a need for STARS to fly and land here, they would land at the airport and our EMS would transport the patient. There would be minimal disruption. We put it on service disruption for the least amount of time possible—just while they were drilling. We were back up and running as of yesterday when they left.”
The hospital hopes to see the new MRI up and running by this time next year.