How busy are private MRI centres in Canada?
BACKGROUND
Long waits for publicly funded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) services have spurred the opening of private MRI centres in Canada. Little is known about the number and utilization of these facilities.


METHODS
The authors surveyed all 17 private and 69 of 73 public English-speaking MRI centres in Canada in 2006, using hours of operation and waits for an elective MRI as surrogate measures of procedure volume and facility capacity.


RESULTS
Public MRIs had more hours of operation on weekdays (14.7 vs. 9.7, p<0.001) and weekends (11.8 vs. 8.2, p<0.001). Waits were longer in public vs. private MRI centres (13.6 vs. 0.5 weeks, p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Private MRIs provided fewer hours of operation but shorter wait times compared to public centres. This finding suggests that private centres have unused capacity and relatively small procedure volumes, and provide a minority of studies.