WESTLOCK - Westlock physician Dr. Matthew Do Rego has seen a need and is reaching out to make sure the Westlock Healthcare Centre has the modern equipment it needs to efficiently and properly treat patients, without sending them to the city.
Dr. Do Rogo has been practicing in the community for four-and-a-half years, working out of the Associate Medical Clinic and providing emergency care at the hospital.
He is hoping to raise funding for a “point-of-care ultrasound,” and spoke of the need for such diagnostic equipment at the Westlock Rotary Club’s Jan. 30 meeting. Town councillors then passed a motion at their Feb. 10 meeting to investigate funding the $80,000 machine with the doctor recruitment and retention fund shared with Westlock County.
Dr. Do Rego told Rotarians this tool would assist medical staff in quickly and correctly diagnosing various medical issues.
“A point-of-care ultrasound has become what we deem standard of care now in all emergency departments throughout northern America and Canada,” he said.
“Actually, when you look at the Canadian Emergency Physicians statement about it, they state that every emergency department should have one of these.”
The point-of-care ultrasound is smaller than its older cousins which must be operated by a certified technician, and it can be used in an emergency department to better examine and diagnose patients quickly.
Dr. Do Rogo used the example of a car accident. The new ultrasound would allow doctors to quickly scan to determine if any organs have been damaged “giving us an ability to tell us if patients have got an air leak in their lungs or if there’s blood leaking into the lungs. Likewise, if their spleen, kidney or liver has got a tear. We can assess for potentially life-threatening injuries that require urgent transfer to trauma centers,” he said.
“Likewise, it allows us the comfort of knowing that patients do not have certain pathologies so that we can send them home.”
Dr. Do Rego also noted that while we are close to Edmonton, for those patients who may have restrictions on their license or no longer have a licence, or don’t have the support of friends and relatives, for example, it is more difficult to get to a site for an ultrasound diagnosis.
With a point-of-care ultrasound at the hospital, this could be done locally and quickly and give an answer and a diagnosis, he pointed out.
Dr. Do Rego said it is his goal to raise funds and see if people in the community would be open to the idea of helping fund this ultrasound, so as to provide the community with a much greater service delivery.
He also pointed out the machine was “future-proof.”
“What I mean by that is, certain equipment you buy, like a computer, you may need to replace in four years. This machine will actively used for another 10 to 15 years. It has built-in training.”
Dr. Do Rego has also arranged training sessions for 16 doctors from Westlock, Athabasca and Barrhead to take place soon. Doctors will perform ultrasounds on 50 volunteers and will be certified over two weekends, March 14-15 and June 6-7.
He is looking for volunteers to take part, males and females from 16 to pre-menopausal for the scans. None of it will be internal. Likewise the physicians are happy to sign off any volunteer hours for students. The emphasis will be teaching the skill to the physicians and thus improving the service delivery to the community.
Anyone that would like to volunteer can phone Dr. Do Rego’s office at 780-349-3341 during office hours and leave their name and a contact number for him to reach you.
Mayor Ralph Leriger, a Rotarian, along with a couple other councillors, were in attendance at the meeting where Dr. Do Rego made his fundraising pitch — he will also be presenting to 100 Women Who Care, the Hospital Auxiliary Society and others.
Town council reviewed a letter from Dr. Do Rego regarding the purchase of the equipment, which was discussed at its Feb. 10 meeting.
The cost of the machine is pegged at $80,000, a one-time up-front cost with a five-year warranty. Alberta Health Services will also pick up maintenance tab after five years.
“I speculated that perhaps there was an opportunity to look at our doctor recruitment and retention dollars that both the town and the county put in for a one-time thing, and perhaps have a discussion with the county,” said Leriger.
Council agreed this was the best path to take and passed a unanimous motion to work with Westlock County to allocate funds towards the cost of the ultrasound machine.
Coun. David Truckey wanted to know whether the new ultrasound machines were common in rural hospitals.
“Barrhead and Athabasca both have them and I don’t understand why ours does not,” replied the mayor, reiterating the advantages of not having to send patients to Edmonton for imaging or being able to release a patient after a quick scan, instead of having them stay in hospital for several days.
With files from Chris Zwick
