Health Imaging & IT - January 2009 - (Page 8)

DR Breathes New Life into Radiography Innovation Con dence Life Powerful Tools at Your Fingertips At EDDA, we build advanced clinical applications to bring a new generation of interactive decision aid solutions for your needs in early detection, diagnosis and treatment. Intuitive & e cient Lesion speci c enhancement & analysis Advanced 3D/4D visualization Volumetric segmentation, editing & quanti cation Enterprise-wide solution for seamless work ow in PACS patients on the table as they bring the cassette to a reader to review images. A patient might fall off the table or become agitated or concerned while the technologist is out of the room, which means some CR studies require a workflow-busting two technologists. During a DR study, technologists review images at the side of the table, increasing patient safety and comfort. At the same time, patient throughput is increased because the image review is immediate. Between 2003 and 2007, Western Baptist Hospital purchased 26 Canon Medical Systems digital plates including its CXDI 40-EG, CXDI 40-EC and CXDI-50G systems. All general diagnostic imaging rooms are equipped with three digital plates: one in the table, chest plate and a tethered plate. The hospital also added a digital plate for the overhead tube in its digital fluoroscopy suite, and the final phase involved digital portable imaging. The hospital has achieved its initial goals with the DR project, says Seely. Patient safety is enhanced as the technologist remains with the patient through the entire imaging process. What’s more, throughput and efficiency have increased because techs no longer carry plates back and forth to the reader. The project satisfied the hospital’s fiscal objectives as well. “Without Canon retrofits, we would not have been able to justify the cost of DR for the entire department,” states Seely. And the hospital continues to gain fi nancially. In the last four years, diagnostic radiography volume increased by 3,500 exams annually, while their FTE techs by four. Tackling turnaround time Integris Baptist Hospital operates one of the busiest emergency department in Oklahoma, performing 10,500 trauma x-ray exams annually. Over the last nine years, the hospital gradually rolled out CR and DR throughout radiology and the ER. “CR improved the analog approach in the ER,” admits Dee Tucker, director of radiology. By 2007, however, trauma patient volume had escalated to a point that demanded a more efficient solution. “We knew DR was necessary to meet our goals,” says Tucker. The hospital needed to increase patient throughput with a system that facilitated fast, organized workflow. Economics also played a critical role in the decision to deploy DR as the hospital needed a system that minimized obsolescence. “We can’t afford to replace systems every few years,” states Tucker. After scouring the market, Integris Baptist Hospital invested in the Carestream Health DR 7500 for its DR suite. Before the ER could harness the throughput of the new system, the provider needed to remodel the trauma suite. The Carestream digital detector offers a wide range of motion, moving along and behind the table or at the head of the table. The mobility improves flexibility for trauma studies and eliminates manual repositioning of the tube. But the setup also requires additional space at the head of the table, forcing the hospital to relocate DR support cabinets and the technologist HealthImaging.com IQQA®-Chest CAD for DR/CR IQQA®-Liver for multi-phase contrast CT www.edda-tech.com 8 Health Imaging & IT | January 2009 609-919-9889 http://www.edda-tech.com http://www.edda-tech.com http://www.HealthImaging.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Health Imaging & IT - January 2009

Health Imaging & IT - January 2009 Contents The Enterprise News Update DR Breathes New Life into Radiography Radiology in the Spotlight Educational Sessions Keynote Addresses Tech Trends on the Exhibit Floor Imaging Tools Managing Technology People & Technology Reader's Resource

Health Imaging & IT - January 2009

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