This filmless review is X-ray-ted

By Pennie Embry, Staff Writer

STIGLER, July 16 — The Haskell County Healthcare System is taking another step into the 21st century, and as of last week, the Stigler Health and Wellness Center is coming along. A new type of X-ray equipment — along with the software that stores the diagnostic images — now links the two health care providers in a way that better serves patients.

“It’s called computed radiography,” said Marid Coplen, director of the Haskell County Hospital’s radiology department. “It’s filmless. Everything is copied to a disk. And the software that transmits the images from our department to other clinics and doctors’ offices is web-based.”

And for Teresa Huggins, chief executive officer of the Health and Wellness Center, this means better and faster service for the center’s patients.

“We don’t perform X-rays here, we send our patients to the hospital for that,” said Huggins. “So in the past, a patient would go to the hospital, get the X-ray, wait for it and bring it back here. And although that happened in the same day, it made the day much longer and more difficult for them.”

Now, although the center’s patients still go to Haskell County Hospital for an X-ray, by the time they return to the clinic, their doctor can be viewing the X-ray online.

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