In mid-December of 2009, Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago, completed its installation of the new AcSelerate DR room from FUJIFILM Medical Systems USA Inc, Stamford, Conn. The system, which received FDA clearance in late January, was installed in December for a clinical evaluation where images were reviewed and compared. Says Bradley Carlton, MS, RT-R, director of radiology and PACS administrator at Swedish Covenant, “As part of the image evaluation, we did blinded studies with a few of our radiologists. The AcSelerate’s images were consistently picked as being superior to those produced by our other DR systems.”

Carlton explains that Swedish Covenant has placed the AcSelerate system in its inpatient area, where it will share the DR needs of 85% of the hospital’s inpatients with another Fujifilm DR system, the Velocity SpeedSuite. “We’re looking forward to using it for our bariatric program, because the table can hold more weight than our normal DR tables,” he says.” He adds that the majority of Swedish Covenant’s routine chest x-rays, abdominal studies and spine exams will be done on the AcSelerate as well. “The only patients we wouldn’t do in that room are more specific cases, upper GI exams and barium enemas,” he says. “It’s a very nice room.”

How did the AcSelerate system so quickly become the crown jewel of Swedish Covenant’s DR technology? Carlton says it all comes down to image quality. The only general radiography system on the market today to use direct image capture technology, the AcSelerate’s amorphous selenium detectors provide higher-quality images consistently, with excellent detail and contrast resolution, Carlton says. “The AcSelerate’s images far exceeded our expectations,” he says. “Even though some of the enhancements that were made there are subtle, the images are nice and crisp.”

The unique capabilities of the AcSelerate system will be crucial to Swedish Covenant as the hospital looks to expand its patient base. “Selenium detectors offer potential to decrease the radiation exposure so that you can use a lower dose and still get a good quality image,” says Carlton. “Plus there’s basically no repeating of images, so that decreases the exposure as well.”

He adds that the lower dose will allow Swedish Covenant to better market itself to patients and providers made skittish by recent increases in attention to CT radiation and pediatric imaging. Features like a dose area product (DAP) meter enable physicians to better monitor both patient dose per exam and total dose per study. “Lower dose is huge in the industry now, so we’re going to try to spin off that and use it to our advantage when we start marketing this system,” he says.

Faster throughput is also an advantage – for patients as well as staff. The AcSelerate provides an image preview in two seconds, with cycle times of only four seconds, and its FDX Console workstation alerts technologists when exams are ready to expose. “When we were looking at DR systems, one of our goals was to be able to get patients in and out faster,” Carlton says. “In our outpatient area, when we had analog systems, we needed two or sometimes three people in that area to get the patients done. Now there are days that we only have one person over there.”

That, along with the system’s ease of use, makes the AcSelerate a favorite among Swedish Covenant’s technologists. “The training is going to be very minimal,” says Carlton. “A tech who uses our other Fuji CR or DR rooms won’t have any trouble walking up to the AcSelerate system and doing a patient.” Features like automatic positioning at the touch of a button, as well as the lack of heavy cassettes, add to the benefits for staff, he says. “The job is so much easier now. You bring the patient in, take the image, get the patient up and send them on their way. You can get back to your routine without spending an hour on a single patient.”

Overall, Carlton says the new DR room represents an important addition to Swedish Covenant’s inpatient imaging arsenal. “The AcSelerate far exceeds our expectations,” he says. “It’s a great system.”