Winter • 2013
One Construction Project Benefits Two Hospital Departments
Interventional Radiology Department staff, from left: Susan Deal, PA; Kari Gift, RN; Teresa Elliott, LPN; Ellen Otto, RN; Lenna Booth, RN; Interventional Radiologist Farid Thanawalla, MD; Kim Smith, RN; Nina Palomo, RN; Tish Merrills, scheduler; Sarah Houk, RT; Sharon McKinney, Director of Imaging Services. Back row: Interventional Radiologist David Porter, MD; Josh Lively, RT.
Like hospitals everywhere, Regional West is filled with rooms and labs where employees work, but ordinary people only see when they are patients. The latest example is Regional West’s new patient Prep and Recovery area that was added to the Imaging Services Department. Interventional Radiology is a subspecialty of imaging services in which radiologists perform minimally invasive procedures— such as angioplasties and catheter-delivered stents—using real-time images. Because Interventional Radiology patients are sedated for procedures, nurses need a location for
procedure preparation and a place to bring patients to recover afterward. The new Prep and Recovery area, between Imaging Services and the Emergency Department, improves radiologist access to patients before and after interventional procedures, leading to better, more efficient patient care. The Prep and Recovery area also offers greater privacy and efficiency for patients awaiting X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs. A corner is dedicated to serving Interventional Radiology outpatients, functioning like a small clinic. And although the space was designed to improve patient care in Imaging Services, it also improves care when the Emergency Department is filled to overflowing and needs additional space, as it sometime does during flu season. “With careful planning, we were able to add clinical space that serves the needs of two completely different departments,” says Sharon McKinney, director of Imaging Services. “Most importantly, it allows us to provide better care to patients in both areas.”
Lenna Booth, RN, at work in the new Prep and Recovery area.