Swedish American Medical Center/Belvidere (SAMCB) is a smaller hospital in a neighboring town that Swedish American Health System in Rockford Illinois owns. At SwedishAmerican Medical Center/Belvidere, we currently have one Philips x-ray room and one AMX portable x-ray machine. The medical center only has one computed radiology (CR) laser reader. The x-ray room and portable x-ray both utilize this (CR) laser reader. If the laser reader happens to break down, we have no way of developing our images. In addition, there are times that more than one technologist is needed to perform the exams and put the cassettes on the reader for good turnaround times. Our CR reader only takes one cassette at a time, so someone has to be there to put on the next cassette. Each cassette takes approximately 90 seconds to process. The amount of exams that …show more content…
This suite would be completely remodeled with fresh paint in addition, new cabinets. With the existing equipment, there is a huge fluoroscopic unit that we do not use that takes up a lot of space. The new equipment would be much smaller to fit into our space and make it more efficient. The new room would have a new table that is moveable instead of a fixed table so it can be moved out of the room for extra space for patients on a cart, it would also be able to raise and lower for patients who cannot move that well. With a new digital room, images would be ready within seconds compared to minutes with the existing equipment. My proposed topic is to show the opportunities and cost savings we could have if we acquired a direct digital radiography (DDR) unit. This topic is interesting to me because I am the supervisor of this department and I am continually trying to find ways to improve our services and cut costs within our