Dixie X-ray Associates is a leading provider of diagnostic imaging services across the Greater Toronto Area. Dixie X-ray Associates serves the Humber River Regional Hospital, located in Toronto, as well as six Independent Health Facilities (IHFs).

These independent healthcare facilities work in conjunction with more than 350 physicians and evaluate and diagnose more than 600 patients each day. Dixie X-ray offers extensive services, which include X-ray, fluoroscopy, mammography, bone mineral densitometry, general, vascular, and MSK ultrasound, echocardiography, cardiology, respiratory, and nuclear medicine.

The mission of Dixie X-ray Associates is to provide the highest degree of care for patients. The Dixie X-ray Associates website reads, “The guiding principles of our practice are to provide a safe environment for our patients; to produce a diagnostic examination with the lowest possible risk to the patient with optimal utilization of resources; to use only procedures of proven medical value; and to interpret these studies with the highest degree of competency, and to communicate the findings and offer our opinion to the referring physician in a prompt, pleasant, efficient manner.”

Healthcare System

Linda Blewett, Director of Operations with Dixie X-ray Associates, spoke with The Canadian Business Journal about what the organization provides to the healthcare sector and some of the challenges it sees in the industry.

“I would like to see our healthcare system be more proactive and increase funding to needed areas such as medical equipment and advanced technologies, as well as investing in our frontline healthcare service providers.”

According to current statistics, the Baby Boomers, those between the ages of 49 and 67, make up more than 20 per cent of the Ontario population. As this group ages, it will create further stresses on an already maxed out healthcare sector as the demand increases for greater and more complex healthcare service.

A common criticism of the healthcare system is that too often too much funding gets sidetracked at the bureaucratic level, particularly when those same dollars would be better served elsewhere, like investing in patient care.

That includes funding removed from X-ray as well as other studies such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for males, a preventative screening test for prostate cancer, as well as Papanicolau (PAP) testing for females, also a preventative screening test for early detection of cervical cancer, which has been limited to every three years.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, one in 150 Canadian women is expected to develop cervical cancer over the course of a lifetime. For males, prostate cancer is the leading cancer diagnosis, at an estimated 25 per cent, while in 2013 alone estimates are that nearly 24,000 Canadians males will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Undoubtedly these are critical diseases which demand dedicated funding and the highest commitment of healthcare professionals across the province. By cutting back on the budget, it then often leads to patients needing these preventatives services but not receiving them because of the lack of funding.

As the only IHF in Ontario that is also an accredited assessment site with the Ontario Breast Screening Program, Dixie X-ray Associates sees increasing demand for its services in the future, and even more so as the Baby Boomers, who cover a significant portion of the provincial population, continue to age.

As a result, Dixie X-ray Associates hopes to expand its services in the years ahead, particularly in the CT and MRI fields, in continuing its commitment to offering the best quality outpatient healthcare possible.

www.dixiexray.com