About Us
Radiology Department Goes Digital
For the past two months, Jacobson Memorial Hospital in Elgin has been digitally transmitting all regular x-rays, CAT scans and MRI scans via internet to St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck for interpretation by their radiologists. This service is known as computed radiography, or CR for short. There is no longer a need for film or chemical processors with this new digital system. The x-ray image is taken in the same manner as previously, on the same x-ray equipment, only now in combination with a filmless CR plate. The CR plate is then placed in a device called a reader that will, just like it sounds, “read” the image by laser and transfer the image onto the computer monitor of the CR equipment. The laser then clears the plate with a bright light so the plate can be used over and over again. Jacobson Memorial Hospital Care Center is able to provide this service through a $45,000 grant received from Blue Cross/Blue Shield and the UND Center for Rural Health.
In the past, after an x-ray was taken, the actual hard copy films were sent to Bismarck daily by courier. The films would then be read the following day by a radiologist, and a faxed report would usually be received some time that day. However, at times the report would not arrive for an additional day, depending on the workload at their facility. For the providers staffing Jacobson Memorial, treatment of the patient was made more difficult by this delay in receiving the x-ray results. Today, the providers receive routine x-ray results on the day of the exam, sometimes within hours, from the St. Alexius Medical Center radiologists. Our providers here at Jacobson Memorial are also able to view the images on a computer as soon as the exam is completed, which makes for faster clinic visits for those patients needing x-rays taken.
In an emergency situation, an exam can also be classified as “STAT”, which pushes that exam above others and enables it to be read within minutes. Keep in mind that the St. Alexius radiologists read for their facility as well as several other rural hospitals and clinics in western and central North Dakota.
In the event that an exam needs to be read after normal working hours, St. Alexius contracts with Emergency Radiology Services, St. Paul, MN, to read any after-hours exams as needed. The results of the exams are returned within minutes, depending on the status of the patient.
If you are being referred to another facility for further treatment, or come here for x-rays from an outside clinic, a CD of the images will be made for you at no charge, for you to take with you to those facilities. If your referral appointments happen to be at a facility that has access to the St. Alexius Radiology Picture Archiving Computer System (PACS), you will not need to have a CD made. Those facilities will be able to log into their own system and view your images which were done in Elgin. This is yet another advantage of the digital system.
As of this time, the only exams that cannot be digitally transmitted are echocardiograms, mammograms and DEXA (bone density) exams. To upgrade our mammography machine to digital imaging would cost approximately $50,000. Since our grant money was not sufficient to pursue this step, our mammograms are currently still imaged on film, and are mailed out and read the next day.
So, the next time that you need a radiology exam done at Jacobson Memorial Hospital, don’t be surprised to be handed a CD of your images rather than films if you are referred to or from another facility, and also, you should expect to receive your results that very same day.