The Hospital Authority for Liberty Regional Medical Center voted to approve new equipment for its imaging center during its monthly meeting Oct. 20.

The imaging center will receive a new General Electric 64-slice Computed Tomography scanner, a new ultrasound system and a new X-ray room.

The bundle package from GE will cost a total of $913,483. A proposal from Siemens for the same bundle would have cost $1,078,015.

“The new equipment includes the latest advancements in radiology service, focusing on improved image quality, faster exams and lower doses of radiation exposure for patients, which will result in both improved comfort and patient safety,” according to a news release from LRMC.

The new equipment will update the hospital’s capabilities, and the X-ray room will move from an analog to a digital system, the release says.

“All systems will interface with the hospital’s Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), which is integrated with the electronic medical record and  allows the radiologist to read images at the hospital as well as from his office or home,” according to the release.

Charles Ferris, M.D., of Radiology Associates of Savannah and medical director for the radiology department at LRMC, helped with the research and equipment-selection process, the release says.

The hospital has not yet announced when the new equipment will be installed.

Other business

In the September financial report, the month was below average in revenue, creating a total loss for the month of around $154,972.44.

However, the current year-to-date bottom line is a positive $576,810.09, according to LRMC interim Chief Financial Officer Derek Rozier.

The hospital will also see some remolding in the future. Nuclear medicine, currently a mobile unit available one day a week, will become an in-house operation and “will help meet volume demands and allow patients to stay inside the facility for nuclear procedures,” Rozier wrote in an email.

Construction on a corridor will improve “utilization of space of the old ER,” and a staircase will be brought into compliance with life-safety codes from the National Fire Protection Association, according to Rozier.

The construction projects were awarded to M.D. McDonald Construction Co. for a total of $143,627.39.