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St. Anthony’s dedicates new Center for Advanced Imaging
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St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on August 5 to ceremonially open the new Center for Advanced Imaging. Those participating in the ribbon-cutting were (front row, left to right) Sister Jolinda Snyder, OSF; Sister Josepha Schaeffer, OSF; Dan Woods, St. Anthony’s President and CEO; Robin Brown, St. Anthony’s Diagnostic Imaging manager; Jim Hecht, Friends of St. Anthony’s Vice-Chairperson; Brian Swingler, L.J. Swingler & Sons, Inc.; Reverend Monsignor Leo Enlow, St. Anthony Church; (Back row, left to right) Ruben Boyajian, M.D., Medical Director of St. Anthony’s Women’s Wellness and Cancer Care Services; John Kingery, St. Anthony’s Board of Directors Member; Esat Memisoglu, M.D., Radiologist, Lakeland Radiologists, Ltd.; Arvind Patel, M.D., Radiologist, Lakeland Radiologists, Ltd.; and Jayasiri Fernando, M.D., Radiologist, Lakeland Radiologists, Ltd. |
St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital proudly unveiled its new Center for Advanced Imaging with a ribbon-cutting Blessing and Dedication ceremony, and public open house on August 5. St. Anthony’s also sponsored a Business After Hours with the Greater Effingham Chamber of Commerce in the evening. All the events were held in the Center for Advanced Imaging, located through St. Anthony’s patient entrance on Mulberry Street.
Those participating in the ribbon cutting to ceremonially open the new Center were Dan Woods, St. Anthony’s President and CEO; Robin Brown, St. Anthony’s Diagnostic Imaging manager; Reverend Monsignor Leo Enlow, St. Anthony Parish; Sister Josepha Schaeffer, OSF, and Sister Jolinda Snyder, OSF, Hospital Sisters of St. Francis; Ruben Boyajian, M.D., Medical Director of St. Anthony’s Women’s Wellness and Cancer Care Services; Jayasiri Fernando, M.D., Esat Memisoglu, M.D., and Arvind Patel, M.D., all Radiologists from Lakeland Radiologists, Ltd.; John Kingery, St. Anthony’s Board of Directors Member; Jim Hecht, Friends of St. Anthony’s Board Member; and Brian Swingler, L.J. Swingler & Sons, Inc.
The Blessing and Dedication ceremony was celebrated by Reverend Monsignor Leo Enlow, with participation by staff members of the hospital’s Imaging department. Welcoming remarks were made by Dan Woods, President and CEO.
Guests at the service were hospital colleagues, physicians, members of the hospital’s leadership groups, and donors to the Friends of St. Anthony’s Hope & Healing Capital Campaign. The Center for Advanced Imaging was made possible thanks to donations made to the Hope & Healing Campaign. Of the $10 million project, St. Anthony’s provided $6.5 million, with the other $3.5 million being raised by the Friends Hope & Healing Campaign. Currently, this Campaign has raised $2.13 million from hospital employees, Medical Staff members, volunteers, leadership group members and community residents. The Friends are continuing their diligent efforts to raise funds for this meaningful project.
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State Senator Dale Righter (right) visits with Robin Brown (left), St. Anthony’s Diagnostic Imaging manager, and JoBeth Geier (center), Executive Director of the Friends of St. Anthony’s, during St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital’s Center for Advanced Imaging Open House on August 5. |
Sue Schmidt (second from right), CT Section Specialist, describes the advances in cancer and other disease detection that St. Anthony’s new 64-slice CT scanner offers to patients of this region, during a tour at the hospital’s Center for Advanced Imaging Open House. |
Residents of Effingham and surrounding communities were offered guided tours of the new Center from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Guests enjoyed tours of the newly renovated area, which brings several hospital Imaging services to a common, central location, improving ease of access for patients and their families. The tour included some of the following health care advancements being brought to the region with the opening of the Center for Advanced Imaging:
- 64-Slice CT Scanner: With the opening of the Center for Advanced Imaging, St. Anthony’s moves from 16-slice technology to enhanced 64-slice technology, which offers much more detailed images of the body and increases viewing options of images. By increasing the number of images or “slices” the CT takes of the body, the hospital has the ability to create 3D reconstruction of the scanned area, giving a more complete picture of the internal organs to assist physicians in making an accurate diagnosis. The innovative technology on the new CT scanner also acquires images as a faster speed, increasing comfort to the patient and allowing for faster diagnosis, especially of trauma patients. The close access of the new Center for Advanced Imaging to the hospital’s ER department also improves the turnaround time for studies and decreases the time from order to start of exams, especially helpful where time is crucial in trauma cases.
- 16-Channel MRI Unit: St. Anthony’s previous MRIs were done on a mobile trailer located on the opposite side of the hospital from the Imaging department. With the inclusion of the new MRI unit in the Center for Advanced Imaging, the hospital is increasing patient comfort and convenience. The hospital is also moving to the fastest/highest quality platform available in MRI technology, allowing more coverage of the body part and allowing more data to be acquired in less time. This increase in data enhances physicians’ ability to make an accurate diagnosis and begin life-saving treatment. The new MRI also offers the ability to deliver highly defined breast imaging with computer aided detection. This feature provides St. Anthony’s with another critical component in the early detection of breast cancer, and allows surgeons to view smaller lesions and determine earlier if a questionable lesion should be biopsied.
- Nuclear Medicine: The hospital Nuclear Medicine department expands from having a limited space to four exam areas. The Center for Advanced Imaging also includes a new full-line nuclear medicine camera capable of general and heart imaging. The ability of capture images of the heart through a nuclear medicine study is a critical component in the diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease in patients with or without symptoms.
Another part of the Center for Advanced Imaging already in use is digital mammography and stereotactic breast biopsy systems, used by St. Anthony’s Women’s Wellness Services. Thanks to early donations to the Friends of St. Anthony’s Hope & Healing Campaign, the hospital’s Women’s Wellness Services received digital mammography and stereotactic breast biopsy in October 2008 and April 2009, respectively.
Dan Woods, President and CEO, shared what the Center for Advanced Imaging means to the residents of Effingham and the surrounding region. “St. Anthony’s new Center for Advanced Imaging represents not just the renovation of the hospital’s Imaging department and new technology. It represents so much more than that to the residents of this area. Those who come to St. Anthony’s can be assured that they are getting the most advanced care right here close to home,” he explained. “The new MRI and CT scanner, along with talented physicians and staff, will help accurately identify life-threatening diseases such as cancer, breast cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s at earlier stages, providing hope and saving lives. The design of this new space will offer dramatically enhanced patient comfort and privacy. The central location of the Center close to the ER as well as the faster speed of the new CT will allow for faster diagnosis, especially crucial with trauma patients where every minute counts,” Woods shared.
JoBeth Geier, Executive Director of the Friends of St. Anthony’s, expressed her gratitude to those who contributed generously to the Hope & Healing Campaign. “I am so grateful to those whose generosity has helped make the Center a reality. As the efforts of the Friends clearly states, it’s all about bringing “hope and healing” to those in need,” she said. “The Center for Advanced Imaging is a project that will provide our family, friends, and neighbors exceptional health care right here in our own community by making a significant impact on the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of many diseases and illnesses that affect our region.”
St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital has applied with the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) for approval to occupy the newly renovated area. Once approval is received from IDPH (anticipated to take between four to six weeks), St. Anthony’s new Center for Advanced Imaging will be open to offer enhanced care to the region.
St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital is an affiliate of the Hospital Sisters Health System.