Your Impact: Renovations at the Linda Buchan Centre Improve the Patient Experience
Published Monday, October 20, 2025
Joshua Cutting, Manager, Diagnostic Imaging and X-ray Safety Officer, and Nikki Joyce, Charge Technologist, Mammography, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre.
When the Linda Buchan Centre for Breast Screening and Assessment opened at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre in 2006, it revolutionized breast imaging. The Linda Buchan Centre streamlined screening and assessment services to make it faster and easier for women to be tested – and to get their results. Two of the goals were to reduce the time between the detection of a breast abnormality and diagnosis, and to provide access to high-quality diagnostic services.
Those are still the goals 19 years later – and you are helping to support them. Your donations to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation, your participation in Foundation events, and your purchase of Thunder Bay 50/50 tickets helped fund recent renovations to the Linda Buchan Centre for a larger ultrasound exam room and easier navigation to help reduce patient anxiety further.
“We wanted to improve the patient experience at the Linda Buchan Centre,” said Josh Cutting, Manager of Diagnostic Imaging. “We carefully considered things like the layout to help women coming here feel more at ease.”
Renovations to the Linda Buchan Centre, including an expanded ultrasound exam room and other updates, help provide a more calming environment and experience for patients while improving workflow for staff.
Expanding the ultrasound exam room was the main focus of the project. The room was initially used as an office, and its size did not meet the need for special procedures.
“Procedures such as ultrasound-guided biopsies and localizations (marking the tumour for surgeons) require at least two staff members in the room with the patient,” said Josh Cutting, Manager of Diagnostic Imaging. “The space was smaller than we would have liked.”
After the renovation, patients and staff can comfortably move around the room, and wheelchairs or stretchers can be wheeled in and out easily. The room now has a sink and more storage for ultrasound supplies as well.
Other changes to the Linda Buchan Centre include reconfigured change rooms. Fresh new wallpaper in the ultrasound exam room and the waiting room also help create a more relaxed atmosphere.
Patients may not notice one other workspace renovation. Changes to the physician Reading Room, where Radiologists assess breast imaging, will help improve workflow. Additions include two motorized sit/stand desks for comfort when reporting a large volume of exams, and a partition to create a sound barrier so two Radiologists can review images and dictate reports at the same time without speaking over one another.
“Overall, these renovations help provide a more calming environment and experience for patients,” Cutting said. “For staff, it has also improved workflow ease and efficiency, which will ultimately improve the patient experience as well.”
Find out more about how your donations, event participation, and Thunder Bay 50/50 ticket purchase impact patients every single day: healthsciencesfoundation.ca/news