Watford General’s resus team is on the fast track

The A&E department at Watford General Hospital, part of West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, is rapidly assessing patients with an Agfa DR 100s system. The agile system quickly provides quality images in the busy resuscitation area where patients requiring the most urgent life-saving care are identified, assessed and treated. “In the resuscitation area every moment really does count, so speed is critical,” said radiographer A&E Antony Butcher. “The DR 100s helps us deliver that speed.

“With our previous CR system, we would take the image, walk the cassette around to the CR reader in the x-ray department for digitisation, then send the digitised image to the doctors. But with the DR 100s, after pressing the exposure button, we get the image in moments instead of minutes.

“The DR 100s is compact and easy to use and move. The unit’s design is clearly thought out for the digital workflow, with a touch screen that is located front and centre. Our radiographers appreciate the easy-to-move tube head, as well, which locks in place by simply releasing the switches.”

Doctors frequently look over the radiographer’s shoulder, next to the patient, to get a first glimpse of the image on the mobile unit’s 22″ monitor, Butcher said. “We use this monitor for setting exposure etc. But we can also view the pictures we take on it; for instance, we can expand an image so that it fills the screen. The doctors don’t even have to wait to receive the image on their own computers to get that first view. This means there is no delay in the treatment we can give patients.”

Picture: Images are delivered in moments by Agfa’s DR 100s system.

Read this report on page 15 of the December 2024 issue of RAD Magazine.