What is a Portable CT Scanner?

A portable CT scanner is also referred to as a mobile CT scanner. As the name suggests, this scanner can be transported to any eligible location within the same hospital or can be moved to a different location with the help of a trailer and CT ambulance respectively.

Need for a Mobile CT Scan Machine:

• Lower patient volume at particular location

Consider your hospital or imaging labs have multiple locations and a few of which are located in the outskirts of the city. So obviously, a smaller number of patients will be ordering CT scans from that area. In this scenario, it is a waste of money to utilize all your power consumption and building space and install a high-cost CT suite, especially for cardiac and another advanced scanning. Instead, you can request transportation of mobile scanners whenever required.

• CT Suite or building under maintenance or repair

A hospital building or the room in which the CT machine is installed might be requiring maintenance. If you had installed a non-mobile heavy CT scanner, then removing them from the current room, finding another suitable location to temporarily place the equipment until the building is upgraded and then moving back is a time-consuming and tedious process. This requires talented and knowledgeable technical team to do the de-installation and re-installation and it may cost you too much.

Isn’t having a mobile CT scanner an easy option? If a particular room is having some issues and may not be the right place to continue with the future scans, you can easily move the machine to another appropriate room because of its portability and size.

• Criticality of moving ICU patients to CT rooms

ICU patients are required to be in life support and ECG monitor until they are out of the danger zone. They need continuous ventilation. Shifting an ICU or a critical patient to a CT room may cause discomfort and extreme hypertension and fear to the patients. There is also a huge risk involved while moving them, even a highly trained professional might miss handling the patient properly leading to adverse health effects.

Portable CT scan machines play a vital role in handling this situation. With these mobile scanners, any kind of organ scan can be done near the bed of the patient. It can be transported to an ICU easily with the help of a trailer.

Also, it is said that the scanning time is a little less compared to the conventional CT machine.

• No adequate CT scanners

The past two years 2020 and 2021 have been tough on all of us especially the medical industry across the world because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  They have been in the need to diagnosing a huge volume of patients to test if they are positive for the virus or not. Before the rapid swab and PCR test were brought in place, the only option to check for a lung or chest infection and the virus presence is the CT scan. Not all healthcare providers have CT scan machines installed in their location. Even a popularly established hospital had insufficient beds and scanning options. Diagnosing a SARS-Cov2 requires advanced scanning features. So, already existing CT machines may not be adequate. This is when the portable CT scan machines give helping hands to the doctors and imaging centers. With the help of a CT ambulance, a highly efficient scanner can be transported to any location where the patient volume is high.

• Economic advantage

To install a fixed CT machine, you require a proper environment such as the space, power requirements, cooling system, etc., whereas mobile CT scanners have the set up already done. Operational cost may be higher with mobile scanners, as it requires deploying necessary staff and safe transportation.

However, these can be overcome by the savings in:

• Sharing the machine across locations
• Less installation cost
• Cost involved in transporting the patients
• Less power utilization in providing continuous air circulation to the CT suite.

Amber Diagnostics has several warehouse locations around the world from which you can request portable CT scan machines for rent. Renting a mobile CT unit for the required amount of time helps you to eliminate the need for extra storage space and paying capital dollars. We have detailed guidelines and requirements listed to answer all your questions related to renting a portable CT scanner. We also have a 24/7 support team to discuss your needs and offer a better solution.