MiniCAT™ Collaborative Success Story:
Keeping Patient Care the Priority
When ENT Specialists decided to enhance patient care by purchasing a traditional (full-body) CT scanner for use on-site, it pulled out all the stops. One of those "stops" was the lease of a suite next door to the growing practice, where the new scanner would be installed and operated. It was never occupied.
Instead, the Salt Lake City, UT practice, a thriving physician-owned group committed to providing state-of-the-art ENT care in a home-like environment, discovered the MiniCAT™ scanner, a sleek and compact system from Xoran Technologies® that is dedicated to high-end otolaryngologic scanning. Desks were shuffled to accommodate the MiniCAT™ scanner in existing office space, the scanner was quickly and easily installed, the suite next door was put back on the market, and, most important, patient care has been significantly improved.
Today, the practice performs about four scans per day. The center’s four physicians, including John E. Butler, M.D., David K. Palmer, M.D., Jerry W. Sonkens, M.D., and Randal W. Swenson, M.D., can examine, scan and diagnose during a single appointment. This spares patients the cost and inconvenience of multiple office visits and gives the center’s physicians the ability to diagnose and treat patients faster and more effectively.
"Our patients are much happier to be scanned immediately following their examinations and to have their physician go over the results with them while they’re here," said Kathleen S. Anderson, the practice administrator.
Also happier is Dr. Butler, who has seen a benefit in treatment planning.
"It absolutely helps us," he said. "For one thing, it often differentiates whether a problem lies in the sinuses or elsewhere. If somewhere else, we can often spare our patients having to take a round of expensive antibiotics."
Established in 1983, ENT Specialists has been growing in leaps. It recently opened a clinic in Tooele, UT, its staff has increased by 50% during the past seven years, physicians are examining about 250 new patients per month, and nearly 200 patients per day visit the center.
Those patients come to tap into ENT’s wide range of services, including otology/neurotology, pediatric otolaryngology, facial plastic and reconstructive surgery, rhinology, laryngology, allergy, and treatment of head and neck tumors. Most of those scanned with the MiniCAT™ scanner present with difficult-to-diagnose sinus conditions, although the system also images the base of the skull and the temporal bones. Already, the MiniCAT™ has proven vital to the clinic’s recent success.
While the MiniCAT™ system is expected to ultimately generate income for ENT Specialists, that wasn’t a goal.
"We acquired the system to improve both convenience for the patient and the quality of care we provide," Kathleen said. "Quality care and convenience are very important to us."
Until the MiniCAT™ was acquired, CT patients were referred to scanners at nearby hospitals and clinics. Initial examinations, subsequent CT scans and follow-up visits often required three appointments—and at least two co-payments.
During the interim, the health of patients sometimes deteriorated, causing added discomfort. Occasionally, patients missed their scan appointments and failed to reschedule—falling outside the care of ENT Specialists. Follow-up care was sometimes lost—leaving patients untreated.
That has changed. For the reasonable cost of a MiniCAT™ scanner—priced well below conventional scanners—ENT Specialists has become a one-stop practice, evaluating patients, presenting their diagnoses and starting them on the road to recovery the same day. The result is often faster healing, decreased work downtime for patients, and increased uptime at home. It all began with a marketing flyer from Xoran Technologies®, Inc., maker of the MiniCAT™.
"The system was exactly what we were looking for: a CT scanner that was specific to ENT, didn’t require much space, didn’t require special wiring or augmented cooling, was reasonably priced—and produced great images," said Dr. Palmer, who uses the system to evaluate chronic sinusitis as well as deviated nasal septums. Physicians did their homework, researching the product and speaking with other practices that had purchased systems. In the end, the decision to acquire a MiniCAT™ for ENT was an easy one.
"I was willing to buy the system myself if I had to—it looked that good," Dr. Palmer said. "I figured we’d get good use out of it and we have."
That "good use" is reflected in the quality of images. The MiniCAT™ produces 0.4mm slices in 40 seconds compared with 1.0mm to 3.0mm slices using conventional systems. Thinner slices translate into more data, meaning pictures are crisp and clear, contrast is excellent, and diagnosing subtle abnormalities is easier than ever.
"The images are exceptionally good," Dr. Palmer said. "I enjoy scrolling through the slices to get a three-dimensional, almost motion picture of the sinuses."
Like Dr. Palmer, Dr. Swenson uses the MiniCAT™ to image patients with suspected sinusitis. He has seen an added benefit: images frequently confirm the absence of sinusitis, precluding physicians from unnecessarily prescribing antibiotics. He added that the ability to show patients their images and discuss findings creates a better educated patient.
"It’s much better to sit down, show them the anatomy and give them a lesson about what’s going on," he said. "Compliance is much better when they’re informed."
Dr. Sonkens went a step further. Not only has treatment planning been enhanced, but the MiniCAT™ has improved surgical planning as well.
"Occasionally, I decide not to operate on patients I would’ve operated on in the past due to the finer image slices the MiniCAT™ gives us", he said. "The finer cuts make a difference in what we’re seeing. In terms of being more selective in my surgical patients, it’s been helpful."
Assistant radiologic technologist Lynn Terry and certified physician assistant Nancy Stevenson position patients and prepare them for imaging; Stevenson also uses the images to diagnose her patients. The system is so user friendly that neither required significant training in order to acquire optimal images. In fact, Lynn has enjoyed using the system so much that she plans to become a full-fledged technologist, creating great images and helping clinicians detect abnormalities from start to finish.
"With the MiniCAT™, the slices are so thin that you can detect almost any abnormality," Stevenson said.
"And, it gives us sagittal and axial views in addition to the standard coronal view we were accustomed to getting with conventional systems. It’s nice to get a 3D look at what’s going on." She added, "The pictures are much clearer, and we don’t get artifacts."
There are other benefits. The effective radiation dose for adults is roughly 10 times lower than that of a full-body CT scanner, and little shielding is required. The system is small and can be installed in a 6- x 9-foot room.
Kathleen, the practice administrator, summed up the system best.
"The MiniCAT™ is terrific."
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