News Story

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Making the Big Switch

Hospital Goes from Film to DR

When Saratoga Hospital was gearing up to transition from film to direct digital radiography, representatives from the hospital started visiting other medical facilities that had the technology in an effort to find the best fit for physicians and technologists.

Saratoga Hospital chose IDC’s X2200, X1590, and X1600 machines to replace conventional film x-ray in three radiography rooms.

That was a year before the hospital, which is based in Saratoga Springs, NY, made the switch. A team from the hospital made seven site visits to evaluate different computed radiography (CR), digital radiography (DR), and PACS systems.

In the end, the hospital chose Imaging Dynamics Co’s X2200, X1590, and X1600 machines to replace conventional film x-ray equipment in three radiography rooms. After putting in the work to find the right vendor, hospital officials say they expect to receive a number of benefits from transitioning to new technology in their imaging department.

“We’re transitioning the entire department,” said Mildred Aviles, director of medical imaging services at Saratoga Hospital. “It is a big undertaking, and we’ve been planning for this for quite some time.”

For the hospital’s physicians, the new DR technology provides better images, which is what they wanted out of it in the first place, Aviles said. For technologists, ease of use was key, and they have that in the new DR machines. “The steps that they have to take are reduced significantly on any patient, because they’re able to view their image within a matter of seconds after taking it, and they can decide if they need to do anything different,” Aviles said. “The patient is in and out of the room much, much quicker.”

As it started its transition to digital imaging, Saratoga Hospital considered seven different vendors for CR, DR, and PACS systems. Each vendor arranged for a team from the hospital to visit another medical facility to see its system in person.

For each site visit, Saratoga Hospital sent a team of four to eight staff members. Both technologists and physicians were included on the site visits.

The hospital also received literature from the vendors, but the site visits were essential, Aviles said. “In our field, kind of hands-on and seeing it and talking to current users, that’s the best information,” Aviles said.

After having seen all the vendors’ systems, technologists and physicians ranked which systems they liked best, and the imaging department’s leadership took those rankings into consideration in choosing a vendor.

The hospital opted to buy DR machines from Imaging Dynamics, Calgary, Canada, because of their ease of use and affordability, Aviles said.

Saratoga Hospital finished installing DR technology at one of its outpatient facilities in March. It was in the process of installing the X2200 machine at the hospital when Aviles spoke to Axis Imaging News. Each DR unit takes 7 to 10 days to install, Aviles said.

The hospital also bought a CR machine from Konica Minolta for use in its operating room and intensive care unit, so the hospital has both CR and DR technology, Aviles said. CR is portable technology, which is why the hospital opted to buy that technology along with the more efficient DR machines, she said.

In addition, Saratoga Hospital obtained a PACS, and it expects to go live with that system in September. With the PACS, the hospital will no longer have to store hard copies of images. And although the hospital has to store the images it has now for 7 years, in time it will be able to do away with its storage room, Aviles said.

“When we go digital and the images are digital, they are now transferable so we feel that our [physicians] will have increased access to them,” Aviles said. “You have some flexibility with the images. The quality is improved with digital imaging, and all of our images can now go on a CD.”

—Alex Dobuzinskis