A new state-of-the-art digital X-ray suite is being installed at the Clinton Public Hospital.

HPHA Medical Imaging Manager, Louanne Plain, says the former unit was almost ten years old, which is the usual life expectancy for that type of equipment.

“It has some break-downs where you were needing parts quite often. With imaging equipment, usually, the ten year mark, that’s kind of their longevity and we had noticed recently that is it was breaking down a little bit more than usual.”

Plain points out improvements are always being made in the equipment and the images on the newer one will be much better. She also notes that the images on the new model will come up on the monitor much faster, so that when they’re doing multiple images on a patient, that speeds up the process for the patient.

“One of the nice features on this unit is that the images come up on the monitor quicker. When you’re doing multiple images on a patient, so the images are coming up faster and that of course, speeds things up for that patient and they’re done in a more timely fashion.”

Plain says the installation is going on now and staff will be trained on the new equipment after that and she says it’s expected it will be up and running for their outpatient service by January 22nd.