Mount Nittany Health in Pennsylvania recently purchased Carestream technology to make the transition to digital radiography.
It bought three DRX-Revolution mobile X-ray systems and upgraded nine X-ray rooms and one mobile system with DRX-1 systems and DRX Plus detectors.
Radiology supervisors, technologists and physicians at health system spent 10 months deliberating this decision. They evaluated four suppliers and chose Carestream because of its image quality and resolution, user interface, software capabilities and overall system performance.
Dana Miller, administrative director of radiology at Mount Nittany, explained that Carestream's software will help them meet regulatory requirements for quality assurance and repeat exam rates.
The health system has also experienced a significant improvement in productivity with the new technology. The technologists can swipe their badge to log in rather than going through the manual process.
The health system is composed of its 260-bed Mount Nittany Medical Center and its Mount Nittany Physician Group, which staffs over 150 physicians.
The DRX-Revolution mobile systems were installed at the medical center. Both at the medical center and outpatient imaging locations, 20 standard-size DRX Plus detectors were used to upgrade existing X-ray systems.
The medical center performs an average of 1,700 mobile exams per month, and the other imaging locations perform over 5,000 exams in that amount of time.
In addition, three DRX Plus 4343C detectors were used in chest Buckys and four small-format DRX 2530C detectors are being used for extremity imaging and within the medical center's women's and children's departments.
Last month,
Palmetto Health Tuomey in New York and
St. Margaret's Health in Illinois also selected Carestream to make their switch to DR technology. Hospitals are focusing on this
now more than ever since they will face a 7 percent cut in reimbursement this year if they are using computed radiography technology.