“We need to investigate further” – the unwelcome pronouncement by your health care provider that inevitably leads to further, unfamiliar assessments and tests. While thankful for the vast array of diagnostic tools available and information they provide, we are sometimes concerned when we are on the receiving end of them. However, if an MRI is prescribed, you can rest assured that the MRI Clinic at Olympia Orthopaedics Associates is staffed with compassionate people, using state of the art technology.
Housed within their beautiful new Westside facility, the MRI Clinic serves patients referred from within the Oly Ortho practice as well as from numerous physicians throughout Southwest Washington. When the clinic was designed, the planning committee turned to Teresa Bowers, Oly Ortho’s MRI Director. Using her 22 years of imaging experience, she helped create a facility that provides welcoming patient areas – spacious and private changing rooms, a comfortable internal waiting area – along with an excellent layout of the exam rooms and offices. The open layout allows every employee to hear a voice of need or concern from anywhere in the MRI clinic. This design is vitally important when working with patients undergoing a procedure that can sometimes produce anxiety.
The comfort and well being of their patients is at the forefront of everything they do. “We will do whatever it takes to make the patient feel safe, secure, and in-control of the situation without compromising the diagnostic quality of the study,” shares Bowers. “We go to great lengths to make each patient comfortable and we actively train our staff in techniques to help claustrophobic patients, which is the biggest concern in MRI.”
Bowers exudes warmth and the entire MRI clinic staff display a commitment to compassionate care, and a perfect safety record, that far exceeds the industry norm. A motto, hanging on the clinic wall, states, “They may not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.” The staff lives this motto daily.
Now, you may be wondering, what exactly is an MRI and how does it differ from an x-ray? Bowers easily clears up the difference. “X-ray involves ionizing radiation while MRI uses a magnet. There is no ionizing radiation in this procedure.” And, unlike an x-ray, which can show bone detail and limited soft tissue detail, an MRI shows muscles, bones, ligaments, nerves, all soft tissues – everything really that a physician might need to see in order to complete a diagnosis. MRI also provides a 3-dimentional image, showing all views of the scanned area.
Bowers gives the perfect illustration of how a MRI works to assist the diagnostic process. “If you look at a loaf of bread and take a picture of it from the top or side – that is like an x-ray. Slice that bread, so you can look at each piece all the way around – that is an MRI.”
To examine that loaf of bread – in reality, you – Oly Ortho has three options. Two whole body scanners image the trunk of the body or the brain. An extremity scanner is used for wrists, ankles, knees, feet, which is a welcome sight for many who wish to avoid the full body scan.
However, if you do need to have a full scan, you have two choices at Oly Ortho. The familiar “tube” style scanner is a long, narrow tube. The patient lies inside, holding very still, for the duration of the scan. The other option is a very short and big tube. “We purchased this particular scanner especially to help our claustrophobic patients,” explains Bowers. “For about 75% of the scan, the patient’s head is out of the tube, greatly easing their anxiety. It has a light and a fan which our patients just love.” During the scan, you can have any level of support you need, from an iPod playing your favorite tunes to a caring individual holding your hand.
“I feel very proud,” says Bowers, “because I know from personal experience with our patients, that we have touched so many lives that wouldn’t have been able to go through with their MRI without our staff – holding their hand, touching their head – whatever it takes, we will get them through.”
