Hospital boasts updated imaging equipment

New machines at Sierra View District Hospital that are allowing physicians to reduce wait times for appointments and better diagnose patients were showcased Wednesday during an open house.

More than 80 people caught a glimpse of the imaging equipment, which include A CT scanner, MRI machine and a nuclear medicine camera. They scan patients faster, simultaneously producing clearer, more detailed images that have brought the hospital up to do date with other larger hospitals, staff said.

“A lot of things we couldn’t have done before, now we can do,” MRI technician Lisa Smart said.

Major hospital donors were among those who toured the hospital’s imaging center. The money they contributed to the hospital, enabled the purchase of a new nuclear medicine camera.

“They could see the fruit of their hard work,” spokeswoman Ramona Contreras said.

The Phillips Brightview camera shows doctors how their patients’ body parts function, in particular they are looking for blood clots or the spread of cancer. The images are cleaner, more detailed and altogether more reliable than before, according to technician Tony Armas.

Like the other updated equipment, the images produced from the nuclear medicine machine can be edited so that they are easier for doctors to analyze.

Doctors who send their patients through an MRI machine are looking to find a faulty body part, such as soft tissues, ruptured vessels, or problems with the spine and joints.

The new 1.5 Siemens can capture images that the older equipment could not, like pictures of the upper and lower portion of a leg and of abdomens.

“We get awesome images from it,” Smart said.

People who previously could not have MRI scans, like dialysis and transplant patients, now can. The contrast-enhancing fluids that are injected into patients are no longer required to get clear images.

Exams that were previously scheduled weeks ahead of time, are now scheduled within a day or two.

Like the MRI, the new 64 slice CAT scan machine is taking pictures of patient’s bodies quicker than before.

It went live in march, and was updated from a four slice machine — the more slices, the higher the resolution of the images that show layers of an organ or bone.

The machine scans one patient every 20 minutes, or about 45 people a day.

Seeing the quality colored, 3D images that are produced is like taking a virtual tour inside someone’s body.

Many of the patients who get a CT scan are those who have sustained sports injuries, like bone fractures, some sort of trauma or artery and vein related diseases. A full body can be scanned in nine seconds.

“The machine is so much faster than the other one,” technician Debbie Smith said.

Contact Jenna Chandler at 784-5000, Ext. 1050, or jchandler@portervillerecorder.com.