Following an increase in patient referrals, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, part of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, has expanded its CT provision.
To improve the patient experience and streamline services the hospital sought to add a further imaging system to the CT department and upgrade the existing one. This resulted in the recent installation of a SOMATOM Definition AS+ 128 slice CT system and the planned installation of a Definition AS 64 slice CT system from Siemens Healthcare.
“We were conducting 50 to 60 scans a day on the previous system and made the decision to expand our CT facilities in order to streamline workflow and provide additional services,” said Mike Kirk, CT superintendent at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
“Previously, inpatients could wait up to 24 hours for a scan, but this has now been reduced by separating inpatients and outpatients on to two scanners which share a control room.”
The systems will be used for a range of procedures including trauma, vascular, oncology and orthopaedics. The hospital also has plans in place to offer a cardiac CT service using the new technology in the near future.
Currently, heart conditions are diagnosed with a cardiac function stress test using a treadmill or patients are sent to a different site to undergo a scan. Using the Definition AS+, clinicians will soon be able to provide a more-accurate diagnosis for cardiac-related conditions on site, helping to save both time and expense.
John Brady, regional sales manager at Siemens Healthcare, said: “Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is in the process of expanding its services to provide an enhanced patient experience. The department is dedicating resources such as the appointment of diagnostic cardiologists to grow the cardiac offering, which will also be bolstered with the installation of a SOMATOM Definition AS+. The system will enable the department to conduct state-of-the-art cardiovascular imaging with high temporal resolution.”
The two CT systems from Siemens Healthcare were chosen in part for their patient and staff safety using low-dose features such as Combined Applications to Reduce Exposure (CARE). They were also selected for the ability to provide fast and accurate diagnosis, assisted by Siemens’ unique Fully Assisting Scanner Technologies (FAST), which automatically suggests the best set of parameters for each examination.
