Healthcare facilities today face a shared challenge: to deliver increasingly high performance with the same number of staff and with the same, or a higher, workload.  But in radiology, in particular, ensuring a high standard of patient care through fast and confident diagnoses has always been a key objective. Teaching hospital Evangelische Kliniken (EVK) Gelsenkirchen in Germany is rising to the challenge with new DR systems from Agfa.

In May 2017, three DR Retrofit systems from Agfa were installed at the hospital: in radiology, the intensive care unit (ICU) and the associated outpatient medical center. The ICU was equipped with the ultramobile version of the DR Retrofit, which uses a mobile tablet PC as a workstation. “We were especially impressed by the amazing flexibility of the system,” says senior radiographer Tanja Puch. “The most important criterion was the new DR 14s detector,” recalls medical technology director Aleksandar Dobrilovic. “The detector is very lightweight, splashproof, and has a long battery life. Thanks to the MUSICA image processing software, it also offers high image quality with a low radiation dose.”

Dose reduction is a sensitive issue. As medical technology director Aleksandar Dobrilovic explains: “By modifying the exposure parameters and the cut-off dose, we were able to reduce the radiation dose by around 30% without compromising on image quality. Even our expert was pleasantly surprised at how low a dose could be used to perform the individual exams.”

Asked for their conclusion, the team in Gelsenkirchen express their satisfaction with the new DR systems. Dr. Ulf Laufer explains: “The installation went without a hitch, and the system has been operating smoothly ever since. The relationship also functioned extremely well, which unfortunately isn’t always the case. Some minor difficulties at the outset were resolved within a time-frame that was acceptable to us.” Tanja Puch adds: “We received very good support, and there was a knowledgeable team on hand who were always available to give us help and advice. Whenever we had any problems or questions, they were always there.”

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