New MRI Provides Clearer Picture at Hendersonville Medical Center

January 21, 2009 – An upgrade to Hendersonville Medical Center’s MRI capabilities now allows patients to have quicker images with high-definition technology, along with provisions for unexpected movement when acquiring the images. The facility recently purchased a new MRI machine and installed software packages to alleviate patient discomfort during scans.

MRI, an acronym for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, allows healthcare professionals to view the inside of the body using a strong magnetic field and radiofrequency impulses.  It is especially useful to view the brain, heart, bones and muscles.

By installing GE’s LAVA technology along with its new Signa HDS Magnet, Hendersonville Medical Center offers MRI technology that takes faster pictures of the internal organs, while giving a clearer image.

“LAVA is best used with scans of the abdominal area,” said Jim Oliver, imaging director for HMC. “We can look at entire organs at very high resolution. With traditional MRI, the patient has to lie perfectly still while holding their breath. That’s still an important part of taking the MRI images, but with the quicker acquisition time, we can acquire the image faster, so the patients aren’t as uncomfortable for as long.”

Likewise, a sister product known as Propeller also offers some big advantages to patient comfort. Also projecting pictures in HD, Propeller eliminates movement and corrects the image to make up for motion without sacrificing image quality. It is typically used for scans of the skull and head.

“One of the big wins with Propeller is that even when a patient moves, the machine corrects it,” Oliver continued. “Until we installed this technology, the patient had to lie perfectly still or our images were unreadable. Propeller is especially helpful when a patient has a head injury and may be unconscious. We can’t tell them to be still. With Propeller, we can still perform the scan one time and see a clear image, even if the patient moves.”

While this new technology represents a higher standard of care, its purchase and installation also benefits the community in other ways. The new MRI represents a $1,155,000 investment back into the health - both physical and financial – of the local economy.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of providing quality healthcare to its community in 2009, Hendersonville Medical Center is a 110-bed community-based medical center with comprehensive medical and surgical programs including Obstetrics, Cardiology, Orthopaedics and other services.  An affiliate of TriStar Health System, Hendersonville Medical Center remains the only Accredited Chest Pain Center in Sumner County, increasing the likelihood of survival in a cardiac emergency by 37 percent.  For more information about the services offered and health plans accepted by Hendersonville Medical Center or TriStar Health System, call TriStar MedLine at 615-342-1919 or 800-242-5662.