Radiology

Rehab and acute care hospital partner on Diagnostic Imaging

TORONTO – State-of-the-art X-ray equipment and a new partnership with Toronto East General Hospital are giving Providence Healthcare the diagnostic tools to improve care for its patients and residents.

The official opening of the new Diagnostic Services Suite on April 1, 2008 was the culmination of two and a half years of planning. (Pictured: Rob Devitt, President and CEO of Toronto East General, and Mary Beth Montcalm, President and CEO of Providence Healthcare.)

The spacious new suite features the latest digital diagnostic equipment, which produces instant, high-resolution images that can be viewed on a Providence physician’s desktop computer within minutes to speed diagnosis and treatment.

The new technology, coupled with the partnership with Toronto East General Hospital, has also reduced the turnaround time for radiologists’ reports from three or four business days down to one.

With a high-tech, X-ray service on-site, Providence is able to avoid sending patients off-site to detect and treat fractures, bowel obstructions, arthritis, cancer and other diseases, and to monitor the healing of joint replacements, among other reasons.

In addition to the speed and clarity of the new X-ray images and the ability to enlarge them on the computer monitor, timely diagnosis and treatment of patients has dramatically improved due to the new partnership with Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH). TEGH has the same digital radiography system and an agreement was made to have its radiologists read X-rays from Providence, which does not have a radiologist on staff.

“The Providence physician requesting the X-ray can also get what we call a ‘wet read’ while waiting for the report,” says Helen Lampi, Director of Leading Practice and Program Operations at Providence Healthcare. “If a chest X-ray indicated pneumonia, for example, our physician could start IV antibiotics even before the report arrived.”

Following an X-ray, Providence instantly feeds the images to TEGH’s Picture Archiving & Communication System (PACS), a secure digital system that eliminates the need for hardcopy film X-rays. A TEGH radiologist reviews the images and dictates a report that is transcribed and sent back to Providence within 24 hours.

It is printed directly to the patient care unit with a backup copy to the Diagnostic Services Suite. In urgent cases, a report can be sent back in four hours or less.

“This new technology enables us to enhance the patient experience at Providence and, at the same time, helps alleviate some of the pressures in our acute care partner hospitals,” says Mary Beth Montcalm, President and Chief Executive Officer of Providence Healthcare. “Instead of transferring our patients to the emergency rooms of our acute care partners - such as Toronto East General Hospital – for high-resolution X-rays, we can take the X-rays here.”

The new system consists of two pieces of equipment: digital radiography or DR (GE’s Definium 8000) and computed radiography or CR (AGFA DXS). With DR, the radiation goes through a patient lying on an x-ray table directly into the tabletop and then to the computer. The image is on screen in about three seconds. There is also a vertical DR panel so that an upper body X-ray can be taken of a person in a wheelchair without having to move them to the table. The equipment is fully automated and pre-programmed for a variety of procedures.

CR is used with patients who are unable to lie flat on an X-ray table due to contractures caused by immobility, for example. In this case, a cassette can be placed behind them in a wheelchair or a stretcher and the x-ray goes through them into the cassette, which is then digitized in a computer producing a high quality image within 30 to 60 seconds.

“By having these two different modalities, we are able to capture 100 percent of our patient population needing an X-ray, which is a bit different than the patient population in an acute care hospital,” explains Lampi. “None of our peers in the Toronto area has the DR system and a lot of acute care hospitals don’t have it yet,” she adds.

Before the new system went live in February, X-rays were taken on film, which required at least 15 minutes to process in a darkroom and often had to be repeated if a patient moved. The film was then couriered to a radiologist at an acute care hospital and a report was faxed back in three to four business days. An urgent request might take 48 hours.

“We are proud to partner with Providence Healthcare in allowing patients to receive quicker access to medical care,” adds Rob Devitt, President and Chief Executive Officer at Toronto East General Hospital. “We are committed to working in collaboration with community and health provider partners to improve health care for our community. This partnership is an example of how hospitals can work together to improve patient care.”

Changing to digital X-rays has also enabled Providence Healthcare to join the Toronto East Network PACS group, called TEN PACS, which offers a digital imaging repository where patients’ images and reports can be archived and retrieved. If a Providence patient has to be transferred to TEGH for acute care, their X-rays and reports are readily available and do not have to be duplicated. Eventually, Providence hopes to be able to share images with other area hospitals. In the meantime, images can be burned onto CDs and sent with the patient to another facility.

About Providence Healthcare
Providence Healthcare is a leading Toronto health care facility, specializing in rehabilitation for patients who have experienced strokes, orthopaedic surgery, or lower limb amputation, or who require specialized geriatric rehabilitation, assessment and treatment. We also provide complex continuing care, long-term care and community outreach with a particular focus on addressing the medical, physical, spiritual and emotional needs of individuals with geriatric conditions.

About Toronto East General Hospital
Toronto East General Hospital (TEGH) is a large urban community teaching hospital serving a diverse, multi-cultural population of 400,000. TEGH is affiliated with the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine and other educational institutions.  In January 2004, TEGH celebrated 75 years of service to the South East Toronto community. As a community teaching hospital, TEGH has 500 beds comprised of a wide range of services including; Ambulatory (outpatient) and Community Services, Maternal/Newborn/Child, Mental Health, Complex Continuing Care and Short-Term Rehab and Surgery. TEGH is committed to the highest standards of patient care.