BISMARCK - Sanford Medical Center in Bismarck is adding an MRI and two CT scanners with advanced dual-source technology, making it the only health care system in the North Dakota to have CT dual-source imaging. The dual-source technology will provide faster CT scans, specifically benefiting trauma, cardiac and pediatric patients.
Unlike traditional CT scanners, which have one tube for imaging, these CT scanners have two tubes which rotate quickly.
“The speed of this imaging in having the dual source area is ultra fast,” said Fred Fridley, Vice President of Operations for the Bismarck Region. “It does not take very long to get the images that we’re gonna need, so it’s highly advanced technology.”
The increased speed will allow doctors to get images they may not have gotten otherwise.
“In traditional imaging with non-dual source, you might not be able to get imaging because the patient might not be able to lay still inside there,” Fridley said. “They might get claustrophobic.”
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Because of their speed, the CT scanners are especially well-suited to pediatric patients.
“If you don’t have dual-source or you don’t have this type of imaging, you’d typically have to sedate a pediatric patient to be able to scan them,” Fridley said. “We won’t have to do that anymore.”
Fridley said the location of the new scanners, right next to the emergency department and trauma area, is “extremely valuable.”
“Anytime you have a cardiac patient or a trauma patient, we’re going to be able to get images much quicker and be able to treat those patients as well,” he said.
Construction began Nov. 12 and is expected to be completed next spring.
The imagining machines will be installed where hydrotherapy services had been held. Those services have moved to a new location - Touchmark Health and Fitness Club at 1000 W. Century Ave. in Bismarck.
