PATIENTS' waiting time for finding out the results of their MRI scans at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is to be slashed from two weeks to two days.

The speeding up of the process has been made possible by the implementation of a digital link with the renowned Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

The move has cost the Paget hospital nothing, as it utilises existing equipment, but it would save thousands of health care dollars, hospital management staff said yesterday.

The Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine, introduced at KEMH last December, enables doctors to see highly detailed images of what is going on inside a patient's body.

The analysing of the scan was a slow and labour-intensive process which involved staff printing out ten to 20 pages of images and sending them by courier to radiologists at Johns Hopkins. A report would then be compiled and sent back via e-mail. Each stage of the process is security protected.

Since May 5, the system has taken about 85 per cent less time, thanks to the establishment of a digital management and distribution solution which will send the scan images to Baltimore electronically.

The new system will be less expensive as well as much quicker, with costs such as fax and couriers being eliminated.

Venetta Symonds, KEMH's chief operating officer for support services, said yesterday there were plans to expand the system to make better use of more other resources too.

"We are planning for all of our units, including CAT scan, Ultra Sound, Radio Isotopes, Bone Density, X-Ray, Mammography and Stereo-tactic, all to be processed in this way," said Ms Symonds.

"It would mean being able to process and report scans a lot quicker and more cost effectively, which means better health care for Bermuda which is want we want to achieve."

The system would also maximise the potential of the MRI scanner, she added.

"Instead of physicians thinking, 'Does this patient really need and MRI scan?', they will be able to select the best equipment for doing tests."

Dr. Daniel Stovell, director of diagnostic imaging, said patients who were gaining most from the MRI scanner were those suffering from muscular and joint problems, brain injuries, tumours and strokes.

"This system will allow patients to get a diagnosis quicker, which allows their treatment to begin quicker," said Dr. Stovell.

"Instead of physicians having to go with their best educated guess, with the MRI scanner, you know exactly what you're dealing with and that means you can treat a patient better and more efficiently."

There is now a waiting list of six to eight weeks for patients needing an MRI scan, apart from emergency cases.

Dr. Stovell said the main reason for that was that physicians are referring more patients for MRI scans than was the case when the service was only available overseas.

A six-month plan to cut waiting times will involve the number of technologists being increased and hours of opening being extended, so the diagnostic imaging centre will be open 12 hours every day from Monday to Saturday.

KEMH has signed an 18-month deal with Johns Hopkins - rated the number one hospital in the US - to provide the reporting system.

Full training of KEMH staff in the use of the MRI machine is under way. Some local staff are now training at Johns Hopkins, while experts from the Baltimore hospital have been visiting Bermuda to supplement that training.