A busy emergency department (ED) in Syracuse, New York, has decided not to build an X-ray room in its new emergency facility because its portable system is capable of performing most of the common X-ray exams including chest, abdomen and extremity exams.

Crouse Hospital conducts almost 23,000 X-ray exams per year. In addition, it is the largest provider of maternity services in central New York, delivering 4,200 babies a year.

“As far as ultrasound and X-ray, a lot of the volume can be handled portably,” Brad Hellwig, director of radiology at Crouse Hospital, told HCB News. “You’re inside the ED, the turnaround time is better, physicians can look over your shoulder and see what you’re doing and get their results quicker.”

The hospital purchased its first Carestream DRX-Revolution Mobile X-ray System for its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) because they perform a lot of bedside portable radiography in that unit and the physicians need immediate results. The system has a console and tube stand screen so the clinicians can check where the end of the catheter is and the position of tubes and lines.

It recently purchased its second DRX-Revolution system, which is currently being used throughout the hospital, but will be moved into the ED once it’s open. The hospital expects to start building the new department in 2016.

The current ED is 17,500 square feet, but the new ED will be over 51,000 square feet. The plan is for it to only be equipped with a CT system, but an MR system will be in an adjacent area and patients who need a cross-table, C-spine or other complex X-ray exams will be transported to the hospital’s radiology department.

“There are problems with bariatric patients — those definitely need to come to the department just because [the portable systems] don’t have the generator the standard room would have,” said Hellwig.

Since the hospital doesn’t have to construct an X-ray room, they were able to free up that space for a waiting room. It also saved them a significant amount of money — Hellwig said a typical X-ray room could cost $250,000 and construction costs would be at least that much, on top of that.

“You’re saving on not only construction dollars, but you’re saving equipment dollars and you’re saving delays in your project too,” said Hellwig. “There are significant savings not to have to build out a permanent fixed room.”

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