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Phoebe to get new imaging technology

• An Albany hospital OKs purchase of the "standard of care" for vascular repair.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — An endovascular suite at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital will improve imaging capabilities and reduce patient stays, officials said Wednesday.

The $1.3 million General Electric suite is “a fixed unit that gives us excellent (vascular) imaging,” Dr. Fran Herrbold told members of Phoebe’s board of directors during its 11:45 a.m. meeting.

The technology, approved Wednesday for purchase by the board, is a hybrid operating room, which Herrbold said “is the standard of care for 2008. We’re behind the scene a bit.”

Dr. Doug Patten, senior vice president for medical affairs, said that endovascular “is the new way of doing vascular procedures.”

“In the past, we had to rely on surgery,” he said. “Now, 90-95 percent of aneurysm repairs are done this way.”

The suite allows for “multi-angular images” and three-dimensional reconstruction of blood vessels, Herrbold said.

“Eighty-85 percent of my practice is endovascular,” he said. “It’s pretty rare that we do an open angio(plasty).”

The technology also should reduce patients’ risk for infection, he said, while also decreasing their hospital stay from seven-10 days to one or two.

After arrival, it will take about four months for the system to go live.

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