Whether viewing vascular structures, tissues or other organ systems such as lung, brain and bladder, these images help doctors and nurses to make the most accurate diagnosis possible, providing the highest level of care for the region’s tiniest and most fragile patients. Since 1999 the annual tournament has raised more than $500,000 for pediatric programs, including new equipment and cutting-edge technology, at KHSC’s KGH site. To all the Kids for Kids players who may not realize they’ve scored the biggest goal imaginable, we say, “Thank you!” Thanks as well to the many others who support, volunteer at and coordinate this extraordinary annual tournament. This is a big win for our community and we couldn’t have done it without you!
Inside Story: SAVING LIVES ONE TEST AT A TIME
Feats of diagnostic excellence are all in a day’s work at KHSC’s KGH site labs.
From a blood sugar test, to cancer screening, to stateof-the-art enzyme analyses, the clinical laboratories at the Kingston General Hospital (KGH) site of Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) are a powerhouse of productivity: carrying out more than eight million diagnostic tests for patients in Kingston and across southeastern Ontario. These millions of tests—expected to increase by 40 per cent over the next decade—ride the hidden rails of the hospital’s pneumatic tubing system, one of many stops on Joyce deVette-McPhail’s periodic lab tours. “I remember the note that came through the tube, once,” says Joyce, KHSC’s Administrative Director, Clinical Laboratory Services, “It read: ‘You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are, and you saved my life.’” These feats of diagnostic excellence are invisible to patients while being totally material to their care—80 per cent of clinical decisions are based on test results. Due to the challenges of the space—currently spread out over six crowded, cluttered levels in the Douglas Wing—inefficient work-arounds have become the norm for lab staff. There is a plan underway to replace the aging labs with new facilities, as part of a major redevelopment project at KHSC’s KGH site.
3 | FALL 2018
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FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES … ONE SMILE COOKIE AT A TIME Visit any Kingston Tim Hortons location during the week of September 17 to get your Smile Cookie and support KHSC’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Thanks to nearly two decades of enthusiastic community support for the annual Smile Cookie Campaign, Tim Hortons restaurants have donated over $600,000 to purchase lifesaving equipment for Kingston’s NICU.
