Imaging the youngest patients represents a set of challenges both technical and operational: high image quality is critical, but low dose is necessary, and children can often be intimidated by the size and unfamiliarity of imaging equipment. “Most of these kids have already been poked and prodded, and they’re always thinking, ‘What’s next?’” says Jon Staley, diagnostic supervisor in the radiology department at The Children’s Hospital, Denver, Colorado. “Our job is much easier when we can keep the kids happy.”

To that end, Staley and his team utilize a mobile FCR Go x-ray system from Fujifilm Medical Systems USA in The Children’s Hospital’s inpatient wing. Decorated with panda decals, the system has been nicknamed “the panda express.” “The kids see it coming and their eyes light up,” Staley says. “It’s nice. It’s not intimidating like most machines; it really drops their defenses.”

Patient compliance is, of course, a boon to radiology workflow, but the FCR Go offers more features than just its kid-friendly appearance to streamline processes. “When we do portables up in the inpatient wing, we don’t have any processors,” Staley says. “In the past, the techs would have to run all the way down to the radiology department just to see if they needed to do a repeat image. The Go has an onboard processor that allows us to see the images while we’re at the patient’s bedside. It eliminates all that travel time.”

Additionally, Staley says, the FCR Go is equipped to access the Internet wirelessly, making it a truly mobile x-ray unit. “We don’t have to worry about docking it and downloading the images,” he says. “The techs can send the images into the PACS wirelessly. In the past, they’d have to take a bunch of cassettes to a processor and run all of them through one at a time, which was time-consuming. Being able to take and send the image on the go eliminates the room for error and streamlines our ability to take care of the patient.”

Workflow benefits from utilizing the FCR Go system extend to non-radiology clinicians as well, Staley notes. “Sometimes the doctors will do line placements at the bedside, or if the kid has a tube in their stomach and they pulled it out, the doctors need to see how far it moved,” he says. “Having that information available right then and there lets them make a decision. It gives us better opportunities to be proactive in patient care.”

To ensure that young patients’ radiological dose exposure is minimized, The Children’s Hospital employs an onsite medical physicist to test all of its imaging equipment. “He assured me that this equipment was the best we had for our patients,” Staley says. “It provides the best beam for what we do here, and the dose is right where it needs to be. He said it was the best portable we had, and that was reassuring.”

Staley has requested another FCR Go unit to be ordered in 2012, and is hoping to bring in a different decorative theme. “There are all kinds of cool things we can put on there — there’s a fire truck, a giraffe, an ocean theme,” he says. “My technologists have really loved this system, especially the capability of being able to see the image then and there and then run the film as they go. Anytime you can streamline your processes, it’s only going to benefit the patient. And that’s the bottom line — it’s why we do what we do.”