Photo By Sgt. Laurissa Hodges | Staff Sgt. Abimael Salinas, the radiology noncommissioned officer in charge assigned...... read more read more
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Soldier’s assigned to the 14th Combat Field Hospital, 16th Hospital Center, 44th Medical Brigade, conduct training on their new computerized tomography scanner (CT) on Fort Stewart, Georgia, on February 14-17, 2022.
“With force design updates, our capabilities tremendously increase converting from a combat support hospital to a field hospital,” said Capt. Shai Zilka the clinical operations officer for the 14th FH. “The CT ISO (International Organization for Standardization container) wasn’t at the end user. Now with the force design updates the CTs are being pushed down to the field hospitals so that the end users have the capability to bring the CT to wherever it is needed.”
Currently, the 14th FH is the second unit within the Army to receive the portable CT scanner. The new design updates allows for the CT scan to be deployable along with the field hospitals and allows for better medical imaging, transportability and maintenance.
“The CT is another asset that is now available to support the 3rd Infantry Division and serves as another capability that the division has in case they need this resource pushed forward,” said Zilka. “This enhances what we can provide to the Soldiers if they get injured because we can now have the capability as far forward as we can while we’re in a deployed environment.”
The CT scan gives radiologists the extra tools needed to support and sustain the division during deployments and field operations.
“As a whole we’re standing ready to deploy anywhere we go as fast as we can,” said Staff Sgt. Abimael Salinas, the radiology noncommissioned officer in charge assigned to 14th FH. “When we were at Fort Benning, Georgia, we were a bigger unit, but now they’re making it more modular so we can stay ready to deploy anywhere attaching to larger units like the 16th Hospital Center.”
When it comes to the care of troops in a deployed environment, having the CT machine as far forward offers the Soldiers faster and immediate care.
“It’s a complete game changer,” said Sgt. Christian Reiter, a radiology noncommissioned officer assigned to 14 FH. “This will change the patient care response time in a sense that instead of having to keep someone alive and then send them off to get treated as we would in the past, we can have eyes inside the body and pinpoint exactly what needs to be done with the CT. We then can keep them alive, treat them and help recover before being sent out of the area.”
Another asset to the CT scan is that it takes more detailed images.
“The uniqueness for the new CT is that takes images on one side from front to back and it’s like you get the images in slices,” said Salinas. “In certain circumstances you can make an image into a 3-D image versus images from the x-ray where you just get one side the front or the back. Sometimes you can get angles, but you don’t get as much detail as the CT.”
Not only do the images benefit the mission, but the operation of it as well.
“When it comes to patients with injuries like the head or neck you don’t want to move them too much and with the x-ray there’s a lot of movement,” said Salinas. “With the CT you minimize the movement of the patient.”
In order to become even more efficient with their new equipment, it is essential that radiologists and x-ray technicians train and certify on the new equipment.
“With any new equipment you have to be fully trained on it, so we have our radiologists training on the CT with the radiology and x-ray techs,” said Zilka. “Moving forward we’re looking at pushing this into the field with us to train on it so that we’re familiar and comfortable with the equipment in case we’re needed in a deployed environment.”
Radiologist training on their new equipment notice the differences between the hospital CT scan and the CT ISO.
“I like it,” said Spc. Eddalys Peguero a radiology specialist assigned to 14th FH. “I’ve haven’t been able to do much hands-on with it yet because we just started training on it a couple days ago, but it’s very user friendly and a lot more advanced than the ones I’ve seen in some of the hospitals. It has a lot more capabilities and it’s a lot more proficient.”
With all the new changes, Soldiers assigned to the 14th FH are eager to sustain and support the 3rd Infantry Division in any potential deployments.
“I hope it changes our lining order for deployment and allows us to be the first ones there ‘boots on ground’ so we can show where we sit as being the 14th FH and being the best of the best,” said Reiter. “That’s our goal here.”
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| Date Taken: | 02.15.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.16.2022 15:29 |
| Story ID: | 414774 |
| Location: | FORT STEWART, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 490 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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