Diagnostic imaging expands

The Diagnostic Imaging Department is an exciting place to be at Bigfork Valley.

It’s a name that covers a wide range of technologies – from the traditional X-ray to the modern computed tomography or CT scan. And each type of technology has one goal – to picture what is going on inside the body.

Located at the edge of the new construction, staff would see excited groups in hard hats go by their hallway door for the start of a tour. But what fueled anticipation among the Diagnostic Imaging staff was their own door to the construction area located inside the department – a door that would lead to a new X-ray room.

That new room has been finished and is in use. Not only does it have a new machine, but it gives the department the flexibility of two machines to cut patient waiting time.

Close to the new emergency room, the room has another feature the staff appreciates: a flexible bed platform. The platform can lower to accommodate transfer of a patient from a stretcher, or a patient who has difficulty moving.

Sometimes it’s not only the technology, but also the ease of access to that technology!

And if it is important for the patient to have easy access, it also is important for the doctor. The department has now converted to computed radiography and soon will have its picture archive communication system (PACS) installed and operating.

What does that mean? Computed radiography means that X-rays can be immediately seen on the computer monitor with the option of printing a traditional film image as well. The filmless method, however, has some powerful advantages. Ever experience a foggy image? On the computer screen the image can be adjusted for contrast so that a retake is unneccessary. Best of all, that computer image is immediately available to be sent to a radiologist wherever he is located at the time, even at home.

The PACS system will expand that ability into a digital image management system. It allows that image to be stored and retrieved along with relevant reports, and it will be available to the patient’s physician over the hospital intranet or to his computer wherever he is located.

For instance, if an emergency case comes into the hospital at night or even while a surgeon is operating in the surgical suite, the digital image can still be reviewed immediately via the surgeon’s home computer or the wall monitor in the surgery. It allows the surgeon to decide the best course of action in the case as quickly as possible – that’s good for the surgeon and good for the patient.

The department has also installed a new CT scanner. In recent training, Darwin Heard of Heard Consulting Group, radiology consultants, pointed out that the new machine has the ability to see minute structures – down to 0.625 millimeters (or about two hundredths of an inch) – and is twelve times faster than the previous model.

The GE Lightspeed machine is a four slice helical scanner, allowing better definition of muscle and the ability to image such occurrences as pulmonary embolisms. It also has software that enables it to pick the best moment to take advantage of injectable contrast. Is this more than just a timer? Heard pointed out that the rate that contrast moves through the body differs with each individual and is dependent on such things as cardiac output. The software calculates these variables so that the picture is taken at the point of peak contrast enhancement for that patient.

This fall also saw advances in the MRI service provided by DMS Imaging. New software was installed which provides faster scans and clearer images, according to technicians. A ten slice scan takes about 27 seconds; the exam about 30 minutes. “Patients,” said the technicians, “love it.”

X-ray, CT scans, MRI scans. They are part of the arsenal to provide the physician with information. Bigfork Valley also has other types of specialized imaging equipment: a state-of-the-art, more comfortable mammography machine; a bone densitometer; and a C-arm fluoroscope to follow orthopedic operations in real time. Ultrasound exams are offered biweekly and echocardiograms are offered through weekly visits by the Minnesota Heart Institute.