Danbury Hospital Unveils

$1.2 Million Radiology Suite

DANBURY –– Faster testing, clearer images, and greater patient conveniences. Danbury Hospital had these three goals in mind when completing its latest effort in the Department of Radiology, where a newly renovated, $1.2 million outpatient suite features the leading technology of the General Electric “LightSpeed 16” – also known as the multislice CT scanner.

Funded in part through the generosity of local residents John and Vera Fitzgerald, the multislice CT scanner is located on the first floor of the hospital’s Stroock Building, where a new waiting room and three patient examination rooms provide efficient and comfortable surroundings to obtain a variety of radiology studies.

According to Dr Thorsten Krebs, chairman of the Department of Radiology, the multislice CT scanner dramatically improves quality for patients undergoing CT scanning for a wide variety of injuries or illnesses. The machine harnesses the power of 16 detector rows to reduce radiation dose to patients undergoing CT examinations and decrease examination time. Pediatric patients will especially benefit from minimized radiation exposure.

“It has the power to scan the entire body in minutes, providing four-color, three-dimensional images of exceptional quality,” Dr Krebs said. This is of particular importance in the care of severely ill traumatized patients where precious minutes count. The combination of reduced scan time and direct adjacency of the new CT scanner to the Emergency Department will bring a higher level of care to these patients.

Additionally, the multislice CT scanner will be useful in noninvasive CT screening to perform CT colonography, allowing total colon cancer screening without the necessity of a colonoscope, and for lung cancer screening to detect small, treatable tumors.

Patricia O’Connor, senior vice president, operations, said, “We have made a significant investment that will benefit our patients every day in terms of faster turnaround time for CT scans. While it will support the entire hospital, the multislice CT scanner will further enhance our capabilities as a Level II Trauma Center to provide rapid access to diagnostic services for patients with life-threatening health conditions. We have dramatically improved our ability to obtain information for more timely treatment for our community.”