The Imaging Services Department will be getting two new pieces of equipment this spring that will help improve overall efficiency of the CT and MRI departments.
First to go online will be a new CT unit, which will give Mather three CT’s for the first time, according to Craig Player, RT (R), (CT), Administrative Director for Imaging Services. “I’m excited that we will finally have a third CT unit, which we need desperately,” he said.
The new Siemen’s 128-slice scanner with cardiac imaging capabilities will replace a 17-year-old, 16-slice scanner. Player said the unit will primarily be used for Emergency Department studies. It is scheduled to go live in late May or early June.
Imaging Services also will add a new MRI, a Siemens 1.5T (Tesla) unit with a wide bore – or opening – that will be able to accommodate larger patients and will help further support Mather’s Center of Excellence in Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery™. The new MRI also will replace a 17-year-old unit and increases the patient weight capacity from 300 pounds to 500 pounds, Player said. That unit is expected to be online this summer.
“The new MRI will cut down on the amount of times we need to send patients out of the hospital for imaging because of the bore size limitations,” Player said.
The new MRI joins Mather’s highly advanced 3T MRI, a high field unit that provides better detection of subtle lesions and clearer views of arteries and veins, often without the need for contrast injections.