New equipment
to speed local testing
Staff writer
Tests of blood flow, more common among seniors, may be done locally again with a new ultrasound machine first used Aug. 2 at St. Luke Hospital.
Previously, the hospital had to work with an outside test provider.
Among the tests the new machine may perform are checks for abdominal aortic aneurysms, enlarged blood flow in a carotid artery, and sufficient circulation, in legs.
The machine also can perform echo cardiograms, which check how heart chambers and valves are pumping, and electrocardiograms, which check electrical signals from the heart.
Hillsboro Community Hospital will collaborate with St. Luke in using the machine for electrocardiograms twice a week.
St. Luke will do vascular and other tests.
An $80,000 grant from St. Luke Hospital Auxiliary was used to help buy the $120,000 machine. Hospital money paid the rest.
“This machine can do any imaging for ultrasounds,” said Robyn Miller, director of radiology.
It can check the conditions of gall bladders, livers, kidneys, as well as obstetrical conditions, breasts, and thyroids.
“It’s a change in the diagnostic quality,” Miller said. “These things are selling crazy on the East Coast, and I think it’s great that our little hospital has something that’s so state of the art.”