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New MRI System Latest Addition to Sutter Tracy's Line of High Tech Services
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February 2001
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Beginning in February, residents of Tracy and nearby communities will have access to the best in imaging technology 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sutter Tracy Community Hospital is scheduled to install its new state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system on February 26. Previously, patients had to rely on a mobile MRI service that visited the hospital twice a week or travel out of the area to another facility.
"This is the best MRI system on the market with the strongest magnet and most sophisticated and fastest computer available," says H. Walter Pepper, M.D., medical director of diagnostic imaging for Sutter Tracy. "We'll be able to see more patients and perform more advanced procedures than ever before. It's a very exciting addition to the hospital for our staff and patients."
Sutter Health, Sutter Tracy's parent organization, will underwrite the cost of the new Signa Horizon LX 1.5T MRI from General Electric estimated at $2 million, with funds provided to STCH during it's affiliation with Sutter Health in 1993. Sutter Tracy has hired two new full-time MRI technologists and is training two additional technologists to handle the anticipated increase in MRI procedures. The technologists will work alongside Dr. Pepper and staff radiologists Sam Kokoris, M.D., Richard Porzio, M.D., and Chull Song, M.D. An internist and specialist in radiology and nuclear medicine, Dr. Song was one of the first physicians in the area to perform MRIs ten years ago.
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"This is the type of technology you'd expect to see on a mobile basis at community hospitals," says Sutter Tracy CEO Gary Rapaport. "Our Board's insight and the support of Sutter Health demonstrate our confidence in the strength of our doctors and staff. This new equipment will greatly strengthen our mission to enhance the health and well-being of people in our community."
The new MRI system uses a superconducting magnet and radio wave energy to produce images of the inside of the body. The noninvasive procedure is a powerful diagnostic tool that can detect tumors, blood clots, weak blood vessels, cartilage and nerve damage, and many other problems just about anywhere in the body. Unlike an X-ray or CT scan, an MRI does not expose patients to radiation. It also offers greater flexibility. The three-dimensional images produced on the MRI's computer monitor let physicians view the body's organs and tissues from many different angles and perspectives painlessly and quickly.
Sutter Tracy Community Hospital is a full-service, acute care hospital that offers an outstanding array of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as home health and hospice services. Founded in 1948 by a group of community residents and business members, STCH became an affiliate of Sutter Health, Northern California's leading non-profit provider of health care services and programs, in 1993.
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