GE Healthcare

At Premier Radiology, concern for patients’ health includes ongoing measures to limit radiation dose in CT exams.

The practice, with three outpatient imaging centers in and near Tupelo, MS, owns two GE LightSpeedTM VCT 64-slice CT systems and a LightSpeed 16-slice system. In spring 2014, practice leaders looked to improve CT dose management performance, both to enhance patient safety and to review compliance with the dose requirements of NEMA Standard XR 29-2013.

Premier Radiology worked with GE to upgrade their three CTs with

ASiRTM dose reduction technology1. Even though the CTs at Premier Radiology were compliant with the NEMA XR-29 standard through GE Healthcare’s no-cost software update process, Premier Radiology wanted to make sure that they maintained a leadership position in dose management. The upgrades were sold in parallel with a 10-year renewal of the practice’s CT service contract with no upfront cash outflow under the AssurePointTM Refresh program, enabling the practice to preserve limited funds for other purposes.

Lee Frans, Premier Radiology Executive Director, reports measurable dose reductions in exams that include chest, abdomen and pelvic studies and CT angiography. “We’re ACR-accredited and have always looked closely at dose and adjusted our protocols accordingly,”

says Frans. “We were pleased to find a creative way to make this CT imaging improvement, which otherwise probably wouldn’t have happened as soon as it did.”

Case for upgradePremier Radiology provides full- spectrum imaging services to a diverse patient population of all ages. In early 2014, service contracts on two of the CT scanners in its outpatient centers were coming up for renewal, and the practice was exploring options to reduce service costs.

Meanwhile, practice leaders were considering whether to replace the CTs with new units or upgrade them.

“Up to that point, our systems had been relatively lightly used,” says Frans. “We felt they had enough life remaining so that it made more sense to upgrade.” Frans and colleagues

CT Upgrade to Low-dose ASiR Technology Helps Premier Radiology Gain a Competitive Advantage

knew about GE’s Adaptive Statistical Iterative Reconstruction (ASiR) technology, which may help clinicians achieve confident diagnoses at lower dose.

During discussion of the service contracts, GE representatives suggested purchasing the CT upgrades at the same time with the renewals. Under the final service contract package, Premier Radiology will pay for the CT upgrades over five years. The packages executed in June 2014 include full console upgrades with brand new computing systems.

Low-dose leadershipPremier Radiology technologists adapted easily to the new consoles and workflow. “Once the protocols were built and we provided training, they embraced the technology,” says Frans. “We were already highly productive, and we’ve been able to sustain that.”

The biggest impact on dose with ASiR has been on the chest, abdomen and pelvis studies (22 percent reduction) and CT angiography (40 percent reduction). “We keep a constant lookout on dose,” says Frans. “We were already doing a good job limiting dose on brains and CTAs of the neck, but those also came down a little bit.”

The practice has reached out to referring physicians about the ASiR technology. “We discuss our reasons for adopting it and show them graphically that we can deliver lower dose with little perceived impact on image quality,” says Frans. “That knowledge will help them address concerns patients may raise about dose. We’re in the WebMD® age.

People are going to ask questions. Dose is likely to become a bigger and bigger issue with the public and with private payers. We want to make sure we’re able to address that.”

Referrers have responded positively: “Physicians are becoming very sensitive to dose, out of concern for their patients and for their own health. We hope having ASiR technology will help us be selected as the outpatient center of choice for referrers in our immediate area.”

Budget-friendlyFrans appreciated adding ASiR technology in a package friendly to budget and cash flow: “We’re in a reimbursement-restricted environment in the outpatient market, and we have to look continually for ways to manage our budgets. GE enabled us to keep the service level we had while adding the ASiR technology at the same time.”

“Sometimes you have needs you can’t fulfill because you just don’t have the finances to work through it. In this case, we were able make a financial arrangement that worked for us and for GE, as well. We’re satisfied with the upgrade and the cooperation that made it happen.”

About Premier RadiologyPremier Radiology, based in Tupelo, MS, aims to continuously improve patients’ health through exceptional diagnostic and interventional radiology services, including CT, MR, ultrasound and X-ray. It is an independent group of 18 physicians with board certification through the American Board of Radiology, serving patients throughout northern Mississippi and western Alabama.

It’s not business as usual. Find out how GE Healthcare Services can help.

“Sometimes you have needs you can’t fulfill because you just don’t have the finances to work through it . In this case, we were able make a financial arrangement that worked for us and for GE, as well.” Lee Frans, Executive Director

©2015 General Electric Company – All rights reserved.

General Electric Company reserves the right to make changes in specifications and features shown herein, or discontinue the product described at any time without notice or obligation.

GE, the GE Monogram are trademarks of the General Electric Company.

GE Healthcare 9900 Innovation Drive Wauwatosa, WI 53226 JB32223US(1)

www.gehealthcare.com/services

1 In clinical practice, the use of ASiR may reduce CT patient dose depending on the clinical\ task, patient size, anatomical location and clinical practice. A consultation with a radiologist and a physicist should be made to determine the appropriate dose to obtain diagnostic image quality for the particular clinical task.