By Nicky Boyette – “We’ve come a long way in this little place,” Amy Campbell Brandt commented about Eureka Springs Hospital. Brandt has been director of radiology at ESH since 2010. She said she and her team have worked since then to bring their equipment up-to-date, and in October they installed their latest prize – a Siemens 32-slice CT scanner. “We bought it brand new. It’s ours! No one can come and take it,” she said. “It can do just about anything but cardiac studies.”
She said ESH stepped up its capabilities so patients do not have to travel outside of Eureka Springs. The hospital performs 80-100 CT scans per month for outpatients.
“I can have a patient in for a CT scan and have them out in five minutes, and the dose is minute compared to what we had,” Brandt explained. “We can look at renal arteries, vessels in the chest, look at the carotids and see the plaque. We can figure out what specialist you need to go to. We can get into vascular detail with this scanner, and it is so much faster.”
Brandt and her staff of three prepare the scan and send it digitally to a radiologist in Little Rock. “We can get a response back and have you on to your treatment plan very quickly.”
Typical scans are for head, abdomen, pelvis, chest, facial bones and sinuses, and Brandt said they can now detect pulmonary embolisms and peripheral vascular disease. As part of their poly-trauma protocol, they can perform a head-to-toe scan in 12 minutes, and find details they would have missed with the previous 4-slice equipment.
“We get a quick response and get them right back to the ER for monitoring. It’s really an asset for patients. It’s quiet and simple. I tell them to hold still, and then it’s over.”
She said they use an iodine-based drink or injection to coat the stomach, intestines and other organs to highlight where the blood goes. The scan can reveal details about an inflamed area, for example, so they can determine what is causing blood to flow to that area.
X-rays, MRIs and beyond
Brandt was also excited about the digital radiology suite at ESH, which she called the Toshiba room, where X-rays are taken. The X-rays are digital so Brandt can see them on her computer screen quickly and “the quality is fantastic. It is truly a dramatic difference in what we can do.”
Also, the table is flexible in that it can be lowered almost to the floor to accommodate a patient. “Once again, it is geared toward patient care,” she pointed out.
ESH also set aside a suite for the ultrasound tech who brings in his equipment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Ultrasounds are used for testicular masses, pelvic problems for women, carotids, gall bladders, venous or arterial Doppler exams to check for plaque in extremities. “Ultrasound is for anything but the skull. Sound does not travel well through bone,” Brandt noted.
She said ESH now also has an MRI trailer on the premises once a week. “If we find something in here, we send the patient to get an MRI.” Brandt said he MRI scanner in the trailer is a 1.5 Tesla, “the workhorse of MRI; it’s what everyone has.”
Brandt said the equipment on hand means ESH offers a diagnostic progression. A patient might start with an X-ray and get an Acute Abdomen Series, for example. If anything is suspected, ultrasound would be next followed by a CT scan if necessary, and last would be an MRI. All of this and the patient does not need to leave town.
Brandt began her time at ESH as a housekeeper, and was so drawn to radiology and returned to school, graduating from the radiology program at North Arkansas College in 2006.