Saratoga Hospital Unveils New CT Scanner
Saratoga Hospital staffers and donors participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the hospital’s new CT Scanner. Photo provided by Saratoga Hospital.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Hospital unveiled a new CT Scanner at the Alfred Z. Solomon Emergency Center during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday morning.
Hospital staffers said that the scanner, a Siemens Healthineers SOMATOM X.cite, will both improve the patient experience and allow the hospital to scan patients faster.
iPad-like devices on either side of the scanner allow for a mobile workflow that keeps technologists in the same room as their patients for longer periods of time, which can help ease patient anxiety.
“The turnover time for CT is so fast that any time you can gain back by being at the bedside is huge,” said the hospital’s CT/Radiation Safety Supervisor Michael Welch.
According to Siemens, the scanner features a user guiding system called myExam Companion that combines existing patient data with information acquired by technologists to optimize the scan parameters and “ensure the best possible result.”
The scanner also has a faster acquisition time, which gets patients in and out of the room quicker than the previous 16-year-old scanner.
“This current machine has about a .3 second rotation time versus our older unit, which was about a second,” Welch said.
Welch estimated that the new machine could scan about 10 more patients per day than the old model.
In a statement, the hospital expressed its gratitude to the “generous donors whose contributions made this vision a reality.”