Kaleida Health's Gates Stroke Center, located at the Gates Vascular institute in Buffalo, N.Y., has just announced the results of a study analyzing the benefits of using Toshiba America Medical System's Aquilon ONE CT systems in diagnosing strokes.
The researchers compared length of patient stays and discharge dispositions from both before and after the CT machine was installed, and said they found better diagnoses and better patient outcomes with the Aquilon ONE.
“Being able to perform whole brain perfusion and digital angiography with the Aquilion ONE has enabled more efficient and accurate stroke diagnoses, while resulting in tremendous patient and cost savings benefits," Elad Levy, MD, FACS, FAHA, professor of Neurosurgery and Radiology, University at Buffalo Neurosurgery, and director of Endovascular Stroke Service, GSC, said. "The study also shows year-over-year improvements as we continue to find additional ways to maximize the technology."
Before the system was installed, patients who had unspecified cerebral artery occlusion with a cerebral infarction, or a blocked blood vessel in the brain spent around six days in the hospital in 2007 and 2009, the first phase in the study. In 2010, after the Aquilon ONE, they only spent roughly five days in inpatient care.
Patients with unspecified transient cerebral ischemia had their average 2.69-and-2.55-day hospital stays shaved off slightly down to 2.51 days.
People who had cerebral embolisms with cerebral infarctions went from a hospital stay of 7.3 days in 2007 to 6.93 days in 2010.
Patient outcomes also improved in addition to shorter hospital stays. Unspecified cerebral ischemia with cerebral infarction patients had a 14.8 percent improvement in being discharged to home, and 88.3 percent improvement in being discharged to home health care, and a 48 percent reduction in patients having to be discharged to nursing facilities.
The number patients with unspecified transient cerebral ischemia increased to a rate of 23.3 percent.
The outcomes also improved for the cerebral embolism with cerebral infarction patients, with 20 percent more of them being discharged to the home, 33 percent more to home health care, and 45 percent fewer of them being discharged to rehabilitation facilities.
The Center estimates the total savings, after using the machine, to be around $1.3 million dollars.
“Our partnership with GSC is a perfect example of Toshiba working directly with customers to improve patient outcomes and reduce overall healthcare costs," Tim Nicholson, senior manager, Market Development, CT Business Unit, Toshiba, said. "In today's healthcare landscape, the results of this two-year study are more important than ever and are achievable for other institutions with a multidisciplinary collaboration and advanced imaging technology like the Aquilion ONE."
Edited by
Brooke Neuman
