CAY HILL:--- The Radiology Department at the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) has been recently engaged in an educational training and upgrading course from radiologist Dr. Herman Schuttevaer and radiology technicians from the Rijnland Ziekenhuis (Rijnland) in the Netherlands. Dr. Schuttevaer has 25 years of work experience at Rijnland. He specialises in intervention radiology and mammography.
In February of this year, Dr. Schuttevaer came to the SMMC as a rotating specialist, maintaining the continuity of care while SMMC was still in search of a permanent specialist. He noticed that the CT scan machine used in SMMC was the same machine used in the Netherlands. The technology of this medical equipment is very good for any hospital but even more beneficial, is the knowledge and skills of the radiology technicians who use the machine.
Together, Rijnland and the SMMC arranged a bilateral education program with the objective to improve the knowledge and skills of SMMC radiology technicians to achieve the maximum level of quality service that can be provided with the technology at SMMC.
For a period of two weeks in October, two radiology technicians, Hans Pieterson and Kristen Hofkes, gave on the job training to our radiology technicians. Hans who specializes in CT scan and Kristen in mammography and bucky, both has over 13 years of experience as radiology technicians. The training continued in November with another two radiology technicians, Emily Limpens, CT specialist and Marianne Hoeven, mammography and bucky specialist.
Radiology technicians, especially in larger hospitals, specialize in one or two modalities; CT scan, mammography and bucky imaging to name a few. This makes them more experts in what they do. In a smaller hospital, where there is naturally a small staff, the technician does all three modalities. This is one of the challenges for this department at a small hospital as SMMC. Rather than looking at this limitation, the training focused on achieving the maximum level that is possible within the SMMC.
By the end of the trainings, Dr. Schuttevaer evaluated the progress and has summed up the improvements with three points. Firstly, all CT examinations will be standardized. This is a goal that is currently being worked on. Dr. Schuttevaer compares the radiology protocols to a cooking recipe. "There are several ways to cook one meal. We have chosen to use only a few, but they are more than sufficient to choose from." This is a big advantage because the radiologist can compare the information of one exam to another. The new protocols used for the CT exams are the same ones used in the Rijnland Ziekenhuis.
Secondly, patients already are having less exposure to radiation. During the training, the visiting technicians emphasised the importance of having the right positioning to minimise exposure to radiation. The technicians now use a questionnaire to ask the patient about their health to find more specific information of what they should examine.
Third, and most importantly, the radiology technicians have better knowledge of their work, to give improved imaging. They were very enthusiastic about learning and are already seeing positive changes.
The SMMC is seeking the optimal radiology imaging at our radiology department. Future plans may lead to more training for the technicians in Rijnland, where CT scans made a day is twice to three times more as made in the SMMC. This will facilitate faster learning with more hands on experience. Educational growth will remain a focal point within the radiology department and other departments of the SMMC. As new health technology and information is introduced our staff will be trained to provide quality service to our patients.
SMMC Press Release
