AI-powered weapon detectors to arrive in London hospitals in coming weeks
Social Sharing
AI-powered weapons detectors will be installed at all London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) emergency departments in the coming weeks, officials said.
Staff learned Thursday in an internal email that the security measures would be coming within 4 to 5 weeks to Victoria, Children's, and University hospitals.
"Called the EVOLV Weapons Detection System, implementation of this technology is a significant step forward in enhancing safety and security for our patients, staff, and visitors," LHSC's Supervisor David Musyj wrote.
The initial announcement that detectors would be installed came in response to a shooting outside the entrance to the Victoria Hospital emergency department on Dec. 14, 2024.
At the time, police said a truck pulled into the Victoria Hospital ER bay, smashing into a cement pillar before a second vehicle arrived and shots rang out.
In January, police arrested an 18-year-old man from Brampton and charged him with a variety of offences, including attempting to commit murder using a firearm. The suspect was in custody in York region when he was identified, charged in an armed home invasion and bank robbery.
Following the shooting, Musyj said LHSC would install EVOLV's detectors, which he had placed in the Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) when he was CEO.
"WRH has had this technology in place for approximately 18 months and has seen great success with it," Musyj wrote in Thursday's internal email.
"The EVOLV system is a non-intrusive, AI-powered weapons detection system that allows individuals to walk through without removing personal items. If a potential threat is detected, security personnel will receive an alert pinpointing the location of the item on the person or in their bag," Musyj wrote.
A spokesperson at LHSC was not able to say when the machines will be operation, but Musyj's email said staff will receive training when the machines arrive in the coming weeks and before they go live. An interview request was denied Thursday.
Musyj told staff that renovations are needed at Victoria Hospital and minor modifications are needed at University Hospital. Once a contractor is selected, staff would learn the timeline.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
6 days ago
- CTV News
Program that helps cancer patients stop smoking available at LHSC
From left: Jennifer Murray (Nurse Practitioner, Cancer Care), Catherine Bond-Mills (Pharmacist, Pharmacy – Oncology and Renal), and Spencer Martin (Manager, Pharmacy – Oncology and Renal) in the Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients (STOP) is a program offered by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) which helps patients stop smoking. The program is now being offered in London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) to patients with head and neck cancers - although they already have a positive cancer diagnosis, it's important for those patients to quit smoking as it can improve outcomes. '[Smoking cessation] should be a high-priority intervention. We know it can take numerous attempts at quitting before patients can break the habit, and we also know that nicotine replacement therapy can double the chances of someone quitting successfully,' explained Jennifer Murray, Nurse Practitioner, Cancer Care at LHSC. 'Follow-up is critical in supporting patients in their goals given the chronic and relapsing patterns of tobacco addiction. With the STOP program, patients can now be connected to counselling surrounding their nicotine use and access nicotine replacement products.' Head and neck cancers include mouth, throat and voice box, but does not include brain, esophageal or lung cancers. Murray supports patients at LHSC's Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre, and will identify patients that are smoking and interested in quitting. The program includes the provision of nicotine replacement therapy like patches, gum or losenges, as well as counselling - providing up to 26 weeks of services free of charge. The program is more than counselling, it requires the support of several healthcare workers, 'Pharmacists play a critical role by offering personalized smoking cessation counselling, assessing patient readiness to quit and helping develop tailored plans to quit,' said Interim Pharmacy Manager Spencer Martin, who cares for patients in oncology and renal medicines at LHSC. 'The STOP program allows us to take a more proactive role in a patient's smoking cessation journey – a critical, but often under addressed aspect of patient care in cancer populations.'
CTV News
29-05-2025
- CTV News
‘I've gotten my life back': London, Ont., neurosurgeon transforming the way Ontarians deal with back pain
Dr. Neil Duggal, Neurosurgeon at LHSC, demonstrates the endoscopic procedure using a spine model, alongside operating room Charge Nurse, Nicole Emery and Registered Nurse, Judy Hong in London, Ont. (Reta Ismail/CTV News London) A new procedure being performed at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is helping patients to recover quicker, using a less painful path. For patients who suffer from spinal disorders, the pain can be debilitating. That was the case for Dr. Robyn Klein, who suffered from a herniated disc last December. 'Intense shooting pain all the way down my leg, into my foot, it was unbearable. I couldn't walk, I could barely sit, I could do nothing,' said Dr. Klein. The neuro-infectious disease specialist and scientist with Western University was fortunate a spot was available for her to have spinal endoscopic surgery performed by Neurosurgeon Dr. Neil Duggal this past April. Spinal surgery lhsc London Ont Dr. Neil Duggal, Neurosurgeon at LHSC with spinal endoscopic surgery patient, Dr. Robyn Klein inside University Hospital in London, Ont. (Reta Ismail/CTV News London) 'This procedure is using a very small incision that splits the muscle, and it has water going through it with a scope, and by doing that, it has less bleeding and so therefore less scarring around the nerves,' explained Dr. Duggal. LHSC is the first hospital in Ontario to have performed this new procedure. And Dr. Klein is one of only six patients to have this surgery performed at LHSC. 'I've gotten my life back. I'm doing everything that I was doing before. I still have some soreness and some stiffness, and obviously now, I'm really sore from all the exercise doing, but that's good soreness, not what I had before,' said an enthusiastic Dr. Klein. Surgeons use a slender, tube-like camera called an endoscope to visualize the spine through small incisions. The surgical procedure offers the most minimally invasive approach to treating conditions, such as herniated discs and other degenerative disc diseases. Dr. Duggal is passionate about innovation and minimally invasive techniques and said using cutting-edge technology to provide the most current surgical techniques for patients in Southwestern Ontario will help shorten a lengthy waitlist of spinal surgery patients. 'This procedure, for example, will hopefully result in fewer hospital admissions and such that we can do more cases and work our way through the waitlist,' explained Dr. Duggal. The new procedure represents an important advancement in care that is transforming the way patients deal with back pain across Ontario.
CBC
23-05-2025
- CBC
External review of LHSC shows hospital challenged by 'self imposed' problems
Social Sharing London's largest employer will need to make tough decisions as it continues to grapple with the fallout of years of instability, bloated management and growing need for medical care, a review of the organizational structure of the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has found. The review, done by an outside healthcare consultant at the request of provincially-appointed supervisor David Musyj, paints a bleak picture of the region's largest hospital — an organization that lags behind similar centres in its use of technology, faces a $150 million operating deficit, and has been embroiled in scandal and "massive" leadership turnover in the last decade. "LHSC is currently in a very difficult financial position and faces significant operating challenges every day. While all hospitals in Ontario are facing similar challenges, LHSC's circumstances are particularly complex," the consultant, BIG Healthcare, wrote in its report, which was released to staff earlier this week and includes 169 recommendations for how to improve the hospital's finances in the next three years. The report was not publicly released but a copy was obtained by CBC News. Hospital executives would not comment on the review because they're still sharing the findings internally, a spokesperson wrote in an email. The review was being done at the same time as a management restructuring, which "corrected excessive growth in management that has occurred at LHSC over the last four years," the consultant wrote. That restructuring has seen the elimination of 74 management positions, and 71 leaders being reassigned. It resulted in a $14M savings. LHSC interim CEO says executive job cuts won't affect patient care 9 months ago Duration 1:00 In the last decade, the report noted, the hospital, which includes Victoria and University hospitals, has had six different CEOs, six different CFOs, and 41 different executives. "Each new administration brought new structures, spending and priorities," the consultant noted. "The amount of service available in the region has not kept up with demand," the report states. Continued population growth means there will be "overwhelming demand for services in the future," but the hospital's spaces are at older and at capacity, with no room to grow or expand. "LHSC feels 'full' all the time because more people than ever are relying on it for care and there are fewer places than in the past that take patients who no longer require the acute level care provided at LHSC. This will be an ongoing challenge," the report states. "However, some of the difficult operating challenges LHSC faces are self-imposed: a result of its own choices and actions over the years." The hospital has hired a large number of people in the last four years, but "growth in staffing has been disproportionate to growth in service," the report states, and has been done without coordination. ""LHSC is using more staff and more hours of work to provide the same care peer hospitals do" 'They've lost trust' The hospital also doesn't designate patients who no longer need acute care accurately, which has "masked the extent of the capacity and flow challenges," that it faces, the report states. Efforts are underway to restart a relationship with St. Joseph's Health Care so surgeries and other medical care can be delivered more efficiently. Simplifying team structures, clarifying roles and expectations, reducing duplication and improving how work gets done will allow the hospital to provide more care without increasing staffing, the consultant said. Some of the recommendations sound like plans from decades past that tried to make the hospital system more efficient, said Peter Bergmanis, head of the London Health Coalition, who has advocated for the health care system for more than three decades. "It's tinkering at the edges again. Ultimately, a lot of this is out of the hands of the hospital administration and we know that LHSC is just a part of a bigger picture of underfunding of healthcare," he said. "We spent so much money in London 20 years ago to coordinate and re-organize and consolidate and amalgamate hospital staffing, and now here we are again." The hospital must do a capacity audit to see what the communities it serves needs, which will likely mean a demand for hundreds more beds, he added, which would boost moral of the staff. "They've lost all the trust. It's unbelievably frustrating for the staff." The hospital's dual responsibility as a major tertiary centre and a community hospital is unique, and it's one of the biggest and most complex multi-site academic health centres in the province, the report states. It also has a relatively young work force and hasn't paid enough attention to financial performance, according to the report. "The organization is data rich but has been information poor with regards to management decision making," the consultant wrote. A look at some of the 169 recommendations Doctors need to work more closely with administrators to review clinical results Individual doctors' admission rates and average length-of-stay should be monitored and reported Pause current spending on leadership development Review policies on the use of expensive drugs for rare diseases, with a focus on "optimizing patient access to those medications outside of the regular hospital drug budget" Have explicit discharge targets so most patients are discharged before noon, and include medical imaging (for example x-rays, ultra sounds or MRIs) in discharge planning Increase the number of patients that can be discharged to their own homes, and analyze why people are getting readmitted because LHSC has a high readmission rate All psychiatric admissions should have a care plan with an estimated date of discharge Mental health services should be 24/7 so patients admitted on weekends are seen by a psychiatrist. Call discharged mental health patients within 48 hours for a follow-up Stop investing and maintaining buildings that are not operationally active Create a surgical short-stay unit for people who have admissions that are less than 36 hours, and do more same-day surgeries so people with less than 24 hours in hospital don't have to be admitted Partner with long-term care homes so residents don't have to go to the emergency room, and leverage family medicine clinics to provide care for people without a family doctor who were see in in the ER Work to recover costs for non-OHIP funded births and switch to translation technology instead of in-person translation services in the birthing centre
