Undergoing a medical procedure can be an intimidating experience.

But for a child, it can be downright terrifying.

Laughlin Memorial Hospital is hoping to change that for children — and adults — who undergo a CT (computed tomography) examination at the hospital’s new Center for Outpatient Imaging.

Beginning today, patients scheduled for a CT scan will walk into an ultra-modern room with curved walls that is bathed in relaxing, soft light and equipped with sophisticated audio and visual technology.

Gone are distracting medical supplies that often fill hospital exam rooms. The only noticeable equipment is the new high-tech Philips Medical Systems’ Brilliance 64-slice CT scanner. Yet, with the soft lighting washing the room, even this large piece of medical equipment looks less intimidating than one might imagine.

Designed entirely by Philips, using expertise throughout the company from its medical systems to its lighting and consumer electronics divisions, the new CT suite features what Philips’ terms the “Ambient Experience.”

The idea is to put patients at ease from the moment they walk into the room and to help make their exams go more smoothly and quickly, explains Steve Weis, a Philips marketing representative who has worked extensively with Laughlin on the new suite.

Upon registering at the front desk, located just inside the entrance to the new Outpatient Imaging Center, patients will be given a choice of several “places” that they can “visit” while watching a high-tech video screen as they lie on the CT scanner’s table and undergo their exam.

The choices range from a soothing beach scene complete with rolling breakers and seagull sounds to an awe-inspiring, majestic mountain peak — or even the Down Under land of the Australian outback.

All of the “mini-movie”-style scenes that also feature soothing music are shown on a video screen that was constructed and shipped to the hospital from France.

Pediatric patients can also select a destination as well.

Perhaps one of the most popular for the children (and some young-at-heart adults) will be the submarine that takes patients on an under-the-sea adventure and introduces them to friendly sea creatures and a special fish who holds his breath with the patient during a brief, but crucial, part of the CT exam when the patient must be perfectly still.

For an anxious patient, especially a frightened child, lying motionless during this part of the exam (which is about five seconds) can be difficult.

In some instances, sedation is required.

However, hospital officials expect that the “Ambient Experience” suite will help to change that for many patients.

Not only is the need for sedating medications expected to be reduced, but it is also expected that there will be less need to retake images because the patient may have moved.

The need to retake images not only increases the time of the exam, but also exposes the patient to additional doses of radiation, explained Laughlin Hospital president and CEO Chuck Whitfield.

The first “Ambient Experience” radiology suite was installed about a year ago at Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

“Within the first six months, they reduced their sedation rates among their pediatric patients almost 50 percent thanks to this technology,” said Jesse Taylor, Laughlin’s administrative director of radiology.

While the special lighting and visual effects of the “Ambient Experience” were a plus, because the suite demonstrated such positive measurable outcomes for patients at the Chicago children’s hospital was one of the strongest selling points when it came to considering it for Laughlin’s new CT suite, Taylor said.

The new CT scanner is the top-of-the-line equipment available among that type of diagnostic imaging technology, Taylor said.

The tremendous speed of the scanner makes it possible to take detailed images of previously hard-to-image coronary arteries — a feature that Taylor feels will eventually be highly useful for the hospital’s new cardiac catheterization lab.

Cardiac catheterization is an invasive procedure done to assess blood flow through the coronary arteries and to check the function of the heart.

“I think it will complement the cath lab,” Taylor said.

In addition to cardiac screenings, the new CT scanner also has the capability to perform virtual colonoscopy screening, a noninvasive alternative to the traditional colonoscopy.

In addition to the new CT scanner and the cardiac catheterization lab, the Outpatient Diagnostic Center also unveils its new 3-Tesla MRI (magnetic resonance imager) for patients today. (Tesla is a measure of strength for MRIs.)

The 3-T MRI is one of two new MRIs that the hospital purchased for the outpatient center.

The second is a 1-T, high-field, open MRI, which is expected to be operational by the end of the month, Taylor said.

This level of MRI and CT technology grouped in one facility is something that Laughlin officials say they believe is unique world-wide.

“Vanderbilt (University Medical Center) is talking about Laughlin Hospital,” Whitfield said.

Because of the level of technology available at Laughlin, Taylor said the hospital will be serving as a “visiting site” where Philips Medical Systems can bring representatives from other hospitals to see the equipment installed and in use.

Outpatient Center

In addition to radiology, the new hospital wing also features an expanded same-day surgery department, outpatient laboratory services, cardiopulmonary services and nuclear medicine services, Whitfield said.

Because of the types of services offered within it, Whitfield said that the new hospital wing could be “considered a free-standing outpatient diagnostic center.”

Thanks to the Outpatient Center’s separate entrance, patients coming in for outpatient services will no longer have to share an entrance with the emergency room patients, Whitfield said.

“It will be more accessible and more user friendly for our patients,” he said.

The hospital president said Laughlin is planning an open house in the coming weeks for the public to come and tour the new center, which features about $8 million in new medical equipment.

The construction cost alone for the new wing was about $16 million, Whitfield said.

Years Of Planning

The new hospital wing marks the culmination of about five years of strategic planning and construction projects on the Laughlin Hospital campus, Whitfield said.

A builder has been on site at the hospital campus for about three years, he said. In addition to the new wing, the hospital has constructed a third medical office building and a parking deck on its campus.

Whitfield said that the additions, of both the facilities and the state-of-the-art equipment, will hopefully continue to be a good recruiting tool for new physicians and specialists.

“What Laughlin has always done over the years is to provide the latest and greatest technology that’s been available on the market. That’s being provided for our physicians’ sake so they can have the tools available to them to help diagnose their patients,” Whitfield said.

“Obviously with some of the new capabilities that this equipment will bring to us, we hope to enhance our stature in the medical community and attract other, more specialty-type physicians to the area,” he said.

“We don’t have full-time cardiology services in Greeneville right now. One of our big goals is to attract cardiologists that will be a part of our community,” Whitfield added.