The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) department of Royal University Hospital was slated for decommissioning as it sat in a location planned for the expansion of the “E” Wing during the University of Saskatchewan’s Academic Health Sciences project. As such, the Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) utilized this opportunity to replace the magnet with a newer unit and to find a more convenient location for the department.

The design team lead by SEPW Architecture Inc. and HFKS Architects Inc. (Edmonton), assisted the SHR in confirming that the new site, after reviewing other alternatives, was indeed the best location for the planned expansion. The site offered the benefit of adjacency to the existing Medical Imaging Department, and proximity to Emergency. The site also impacted the amenity spaces surrounding the hospital the least as it occupies an underutilized area currently partially utilized as a parking lot for emergency patients.

Considerations for site selection and the design of the addition included but were not limited to: selecting a site to limit the impact on the surrounding natural environment, selecting a site near medical imaging and emergency, selecting a site away from future construction, selecting a site that permits access to replace the magnet, creating a floor of unassigned space, reducing the height of the addition, breaking down the mass, addressing the existing built context, removing emergency parking, and creating an energy efficient building.

Due to the elongated nature of the selected site, and the desire to have the MRI suite on the main floor of the building with floor level tie-in to the 1978 floor level, not the 1955 building, the organization of the functions housed in the suite also took a linear form.

Reception and waiting areas formed the first grouping of spaces, immediately adjacent the corridor leading from the Main Mall of the 1978 building to the 1955 building, past the west side of the Medical Imaging Department. Offices and central booking were also located in this first zone. With this arrangement, walk-in patients will be able to easily find the department due to its adjacency to the Mall and parkade.

Clients are then lead into the next zone by MRI staff and asked to change, to store valuables and ferrous objects in the lockers provided and wait in the gowned waiting room. Patients also arrive by stretcher from the remainder of the hospital, and are asked to wait in the patient bays provided in this zone prior to being escorted into the imaging area.

Next, patients are then escorted, or wheeled, into the procedure room where they will undergo the MRI procedure. Once the procedure is completed they are escorted back to the changing area or back to various wings of the hospital.

For now, the southern end of the main floor of the addition will house a staff lounge, coffee room, and washrooms as well as a ramped utilized for access to this area from the 1955 building. In future, the SHR plans to convert the staff lounge into another MRI procedure room, utilizing the strategically placed control room to view both magnets and their occupants.

Obviously, with the magnet suite desired to be on the main floor, a ground floor space was created below. At this time it is uncertain what will occupy the ground floor. We understand that it will most likely be used for an expansion to critical care/emergency, but for now the space will remain open.