Doctors serving patients at Sanpete Valley Hospital now have a direct, diagnostic link to radiologists at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center thanks to a new imaging device and computer software.
Sanpete Valley has installed a computer tomography or CT scanner that can take X-rays of the body from different angles. But the rural hospital lacks radiologists to read the CT images."We are thrilled to be one of the few rural hospitals in Utah with a CT scanner," said George Winn, hospital administrator. "But a CT scanner isn't much good without radiologists who can read the images. A community the size of Sanpete Valley can't support a full-time radiologist."
With the technology that has made the Internet popular, and with the help of a software program developed by doctors at Utah Valley, physicians at Sanpete can now interface with Utah Valley radiologists. Those radiologists can read images scanned in Mt. Pleasant within seconds.
"That's a tremendous convenience to patients in Sanpete Valley," said Dr. Bruce McIff of Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. "Not only that, but this could have a tremendous positive impact on treating certain types of patients."
For instance, McIff said a patient who has suffered a stroke may receive anti-coagulant medications unless there is a possibility of hemorrhaging in the brain. That is determined by a CT scan. Until the scanner was in place, patients at Sanpete Valley would have to be transferred to Utah Valley for the scan, more than an hour away. Most patients are likely to be transferred back to Sanpete Valley, making the trip a very expensive one.
There is a small window of time in which anti-coagulants can work on the blood clots causing the stroke, minimizing damage to the brain. With the new equipment and technology, patients can receive expedited treatment in Sanpete.
"With this new system in place, many of these transfers will be avoided, improving the care and reducing the cost in may cases," Winn said.
Perhaps the biggest advantage for both doctors and patients is that Utah Valley radiologists can receive the computer images 24 hours a day, at home. Radiologists are at Utah Valley about 20 hours each day, but with the computer technology, they can access the images on home computers any time.
"Use of electronic files is the future direction for X-rays and other diagnostic images," said McIff. "Our vision is that eventually we could get away from using films, and have all our radiology images stored on huge computer data-bases, making them immediately accessible to physicians. That will be a great advantage to both the doctor and the patient."