Regional hospitals upping technology and patient care

Hospitals in the Southeast Tennessee and North Georgia region are adding new technology and expanding services to improve patient care, hospital officials say.

Catoosa County

* Hutcheson Medical Center in Fort Oglethorpe has added a $1.3 million cardiac catheterization lab, which will use angiography equipment to get detailed images of a patient's blood vessels. The hospital also moved its chemotherapy suite from its main campus to Hutcheson on the Parkway, where the hospital's Fuller Cancer Center is located. The cancer center also was expanded to include a comprehensive resource center for its patients, said Charles Stewart, president and chief executive of Hutcheson.

"It brings all of the therapy for cancer patients under one roof," he said.

Bradley County

* SkyRidge Medical Center in Bradley County completed a new facility that houses a 43-bed emergency department, a 10-bed ICU unit, eight surgical suites and 31 private rooms. The facility opened this month, said spokeswoman Ann Marie Brewer.

SkyRidge also added a new gastroenterology lab on the Westside campus which offers high-definition monitors and narrow-band imaging.

whitfield County

* Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Ga., received accreditation for its chest pain center that allows it to use a balloon catheter to widen blocked arteries or a stent to hold the arteries open.

"The ability to provide this type of treatment here in Dalton can make a world of difference to our patients," said Dr. Stephen Rohn, president of the medical staff at Hamilton, in a release.

The hospital also installed a new 1.5 Tesla Open MRI in May. The equipment can accommodate very large patients and the large design makes imaging more comfortable for claustrophobic patients.

Hutcheson Medical Center

* Address: 100 Gross Crescent Circle, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.

* Beds: 195 acute-care beds, 109 long-term care beds

* Affiliations/Campuses: Hutcheson on the Parkway,

SkyRidge Medical Center

* Address: 2305 Chambliss Ave. NW, Cleveland, Tenn.

* Beds: 351 beds between two campuses

* Affiliations/Campuses: Westside campus at 2800 Westside Drive

HAMILTON MEDICAL CENTER

* Address: 1200 Memorial Drive, Dalton, Ga.

* Beds: 282 beds

* Affiliations/Campuses: Bradley Wellness Center, Murray Medical Center

WHAT IS ANGIOGRAPHY?

Angiography is a procedure that helps physicians visualize blood vessels in various parts of the body, including the heart, brain and kidneys. After a thin catheter is inserted into an artery leading to the desired body area, an iodine-based dye is injected to highlight the vessels when X-rays are taken. Angiography often is used to determine whether blood vessels are narrowed or blocked. It also makes it possible to combine diagnosis and treatment in a single procedure, as in patients who undergo surgery, angioplasty or stent placement.

Source: Hutcheson Medical Center

WHAT IS NARROW-BAND IMAGING?

Narrow-band imaging is a new endoscopic technology. Endoscopy is a method of looking inside the body using a flexible tube that has a small camera on the end of it. This latest imaging technology can provide sharper, more detailed images that can help doctors better identify potentially cancerous polyps on the colon, while decreasing procedure time.

Source: SkyRidge Medical Center

WHAT IS A CHEST PAIN CENTER ACCREDITATION?

The Society of Chest Pain Centers, a nonprofit society devoted to decreasing deaths from heart disease, launched an accreditation process to evaluate chest pain centers across the country to ensure that these centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures. Hamilton Medical Center received accreditation for its chest pain center from the review committee of the Society of Chest Pain Centers. The accreditation designation allows the hospital to perform balloon catheter or stent procedures to open blocked arteries.

Source: Hamilton Medical Center

<p id="adcode" style="display:none;">s22</p>