Investments Funded by Donors

Donor-funded equipment and technology has formed a foundation of world-class care.

Donors have been opening up the future of healthcare for the people of this region since Charlotte Nicholls funded the city’s first hospital.

That’s the incredible power of philanthropy. At its core, it is the energy that powers advancement, the passion that fuels innovation, and the key that opens the doors that lead to truly world-class patient care.

Community hospital. Big city expertise.

With philanthropic support from generous donors totaling more than $37 million over the last five years alone, donors have invested significantly in every corner of Peterborough Regional Health Centre. In addition to the vital tools put in the hands of our healthcare professionals, we’ve supported PRHC’s transformation into a fully realized regional health centre.

From cardiac, stroke and vascular care, to cancer, mental health and minimally invasive intervention, we set out to break boundaries and redefine what it means to be a “community hospital” in Canada by bringing world-class programs, procedures and patient care to your doorstep.

In fact, PRHC’s regional programs now provide lifesaving care for up to 600,000 people from Lindsay and the City of Kawartha Lakes, to Campbellford, Cobourg, and Port Hope, west to Port Perry, Oshawa and Durham Region, all the way north to the Haliburton Highlands.

Thanks to the past support of donors…

PRHC’s interventional cardiologists are at the ready 24/7. In a typical year, PRHC’s cardiac care team performs almost 3,000 cardiac procedures. In 2020/21, 1,719 of these procedures took place in the Cath Lab, 810 requiring a stent – 202 of those while a heart attack was taking place as part of PRHC’s Code STEMI partnership.

The Cardiac Cath Lab received a software upgrade and lifesaving equipment and technology in 2015. Investments included rotoblation to open calcified narrowings in the heart’s arteries that can’t be opened with balloon angioplasty, optical coherence tomography used by cardiologists to visualize the size and shape of arterial blockages in real time, and transesophageal echocardiogram, a 3-D diagnostic technology to take clearer images of the heart and valves when a patient has thick chest walls, is on a ventilator, is bandaged or cannot have an angiogram.

After expanding the hospital’s cancer care program to include radiation therapy in 2013, we funded three full-field digital mammography machines. The machines have a brand-new, 3-D option called tomosynthesis, to give physicians in PRHC’s Breast Assessment Centre the ability to look at the breast from many angles to determine if anything looks suspicious and detect even the smallest tumours sooner, decreasing the need for patient call-backs. The equipment reduces patient discomfort and anxiety, allowing technologists to focus on precise positioning, making the exam easier and faster.

Laboratory investments in excess of $2 million were made at the Health Centre over five years from 2014-2019 to support cancer diagnosis and expedite the results of diagnostic testing for PRHC and its five smaller partner hospitals. Since physicians rely on lab results to determine and confirm 100% of cancer diagnoses and treatment decisions, 100% of the time, advanced equipment such as cellavision, cell saver, tissue processors and microscopes are vital to physicians getting the information they need to make accurate cancer diagnoses and treatment recommendations even sooner for patients.

PRHC is one of the busiest centres for minimally invasive intervention outside of downtown Toronto. Nine of PRHC’s 12 operating suites and two interventional radiology suites were recently outfitted with high-tech computers, scopes with cameras and specialized surgical instruments so surgeons and interventional radiologists can diagnose and treat everything from kidney stones to blood clots faster and without the risks associated with major surgery. These changes have enabled more procedures with less pain, fewer complications and shorter hospital stays for patients. And the investment helped PRHC’s surgical team achieve international accolades through the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP), making PRHC one of only 89 hospitals, and one of only 11 in Canada, to achieve the “Meritorious” designation.

The Health Centre’s Emergency Department — one of the busiest in the province with 86,000 visits last year alone — includes two new X-Ray trauma suites, vital signs monitoring technology, and portable ultrasounds, all aimed at speeding diagnosis and streamlining care when time is of the essence.

PRHC has digital portable diagnostic equipment that preserves valuable, sometimes lifesaving time in diagnosing and treating patients at the bedside and keeps patients more comfortable when they’re too fragile to be taken to the Diagnostic Imaging Unit. Investments include X-Ray machines with high resolution imaging, and plasma emission detectors to test blood gases in a variety of circumstances, such as when a patient has difficulty breathing and in determining the extent of cardiac arrest.

SPECT/CT technology, the first of its kind to be installed in Canada and the biggest leap forward in nuclear medicine in more than a decade, is available at PRHC. It combines images taken using radioactive compounds with 360-degree CT images to give physicians both the structural and functional information needed to diagnose, stage and localize lesions or disease, such as tumours.

The Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Unit Courtyard, a tranquil, safe and supportive space where young patients can enjoy the outdoors and receive care essential to their healing process, including leisure, exercise and sensory activities was completed. Documented evidence indicates these patient supports can reduce patients’ length of stay and use of anti-depressants and improve patient satisfaction as well as patient outcomes.

Significant investments have been made in Women’s & Children’s areas of care including Labour & Delivery and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit that are keeping mothers and babies safe and close to home. These investments include electronic fetal monitors to continuously monitor a baby’s heartbeat and the contractions of the uterus, and incubators that adjust easily so family members can be at the same height as the infant and feature advanced digital technology that keeps environmental noise down. Donors have also funded radiant heater/warmers that regulate a baby’s temperature more accurately and efficiently and provide 360-degree access for ventilating and resuscitating, as well as a SERVO-U ventilator for specialized, self-adjusting ventilation specific to infants.

The Martin and Denise Pick Learning Centre, a 4,300 square foot flexible clinical, education and meeting space featuring state-of-the-art tools and a simulated clinical training space is ensuring our hospital’s physicians, nurses and staff have access to the space and technology they need to further develop their skills and deliver world-class care to patients from across our region.

PRHC has a new phacoemulsification unit, the essential equipment used during life-changing cataract surgery to emulsify the eye’s internal lens and replace aspirated fluids with an irrigation of balanced salt solution, maintaining the anterior chamber of the eye and cooling the device used to perform the surgery. For the thousands of patients who rely on cataract surgery to restore their vision, the new technology helps physicians deliver better, safer results and faster recovery times.

It’s on this incredible foundation that we know we can build for tomorrow.

PRHC and the PRHC Foundation are so grateful for the donor generosity that has made all of these life-changing and lifesaving investments possible. It’s these investments in the right tools, people and spaces that ensure PRHC is able to take patient care to the next level, shaping the future of healthcare in our region for generations to come.

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Please call us at 705-876-5000, or