New Scanner/Level 2 Trauma

My facility is very busy and is responsible for 7 floors of in-patients, a full schedule of out-patients, and two busy Emergency Departments. We operate with 4 scanners. These scanners are comprised of a GE 1-slice (used mainly for biopsies and drainage's), a GE 8-slice, a Phillips 16-slice, and a GE 64-slice. We have the capacity to scan a patient at 500lbs. This summer we are getting an additional scanner. My facility is converting to a level 2 trauma center and we will gain an additional GE 64-slice scanner. I am excited about learning the software on the new scanner and I am excited to see what new features this version has. Turning into a level 2 trauma center will be significant change from what we are currently doing. We currently don't see a huge amount of trauma. We generally see old trauma, post-surgery, chest issues, general head work, and generalized abdominal pain through our Emergency Department.

CT Enterography w/ VoLumen

My facility does a routine abdomen/pelvis study after Enterography exams that are started in Radiology. Lately, this process has been changed to eliminate the general Radiography portion of the exam. This process has been changed by using a negative oral contrast called VoLumen. This exam is done for evaluation of Crohn's disease or suspected inflammatory bowel disease. For this exam: 20ml/Kg of VoLumen up to 1350 (3 bottles) total, is drank by the patient. The patient should drink each bottle (450 ml) over 20-25 minutes. The patient then drinks 8oz. of water and lies on his or her right side 2-3 minutes. This exam follows a CTA/CTV protocol. This exam eliminates the invasive nature of using an NG tube as in traditional Enterography. VoLumen is also used in some routine abdomen/pelvis exams instead of other, more commonly used types of contrast. The advantages of VoLumen are superior lumen to wall differentiation compared to positive contrasts, improved quality of post-processed 3D images, and better bowel distention.