Redwood Regional: ‘We are advancing technology available’
[caption id="attachment_28408" align="alignright" width="360" caption="Jonathan Andrews, imaging administrator with the new 128-slice CT scanner"][/caption]
SANTA ROSA – Redwood Regional Medical Group has purchased a new 128-slice, low-dose CT scanner, the first of its kind in the North Bay.
The scanner takes double the amount of images and can get much more detail faster and with less radiation than the 64-slice scanner, which was the most powerful in the area before.
“In the old ones, you are getting some level of radiation on the part of your body that goes in there before the section you are trying to scan,” said Maureen Middlebrook, spokeswoman for Redwood Regional Medical Group.
“Now there are shields so the only part of your body that is getting scanned gets radiation,” she said.
Redwood Regional Medical Group is a doctor-owned private oncology practice. One of the largest in the North Bay, it has eight facilities in four counties with 320 employees. There are 42 doctors, 20 of whom are radiologists. In addition to scanning their own patients, they read scans done by Memorial, Sutter, Healdsburg and Petaluma Valley hospitals.
Currently, Redwood Regional sees about 8,000 patients a year. That works out to roughly four per hour. With the speed of this technology, the group will be able to see more patients and serve them more quickly.
With more patients going through, the wait time from when a doctor orders a scan to when the doctor gets the results is lowered dramatically.
“We are advancing the technology we have available for patients,” said Jonathan Andrews, the imaging administrator of Redwood Regional. “We are capable of getting much more detailed images with much less radiation exposure.”
“Our patients will benefit from this new technology because of the exceptional quality of the images now available to our radiologists,” said Dr. Robert Feiwell, radiology section chief. “And our patients’ comfort also can be easily accommodated by the strength of the table and size of the bore.”
The facility is going through remodels and updating of equipment onsite.
“Redwood Regional is on a program to modernize our infrastructure and accommodate computer technology and speed to do more and deliver more care,” Dr. Feiwell said.
