A 40-foot crane with a boom of 60 feet recently delivered the latest heavyweight tool in Akron General’s growing arsenal against brain cancers and neurological disorders.
A 16,350-pound magnet for a new intraoperative MRI was installed on Saturday as part of the medical center’s expanding Neuroscience Institute.
When the new operating room opens in early February, surgeons will be able to view images of a patient’s brain taken before a procedure is finished.
The intraoperative MRI and surgical table cost about $2 million, according to a hospital spokesman. The equipment acquisition is part of a $30 million investment the health system is making to boost its ability to treat patients with brain cancer and neurological disorders.
Neurosurgeons from the Center for Neuro and Spine Inc. in Akron joined with Akron General Health System last year to launch the institute.
The multimillion-dollar Neuroscience Institute is one of only five programs in the state to have a Gamma Knife, which uses precise beams of radiation instead of an actual knife to target and destroy brain tumors and other cranial disorders while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.
In addition, Akron General Medical Center opened a neurological intensive-care unit in February to treat patients recovering from strokes, traumatic brain injuries, brain surgery and other serious neurological problems.
General Electric installed the magnet on Saturday, with Diamond Steel Construction Co. of North Lima serving as the rigging company.
Children’s expands
Akron Children’s Hospital is expanding its care for young patients into East Liverpool.
The pediatric hospital announced Monday that it has signed an agreement to run the 15-bed pediatric unit at East Liverpool City Hospital.
Children’s will lease the space from East Liverpool City Hospital, starting in January.
“We recognize the need to bring Akron Children’s pediatric expertise closer to where our families live, and are happy to add East Liverpool as a valued partner to our more than 80 service locations,” Akron Children’s Hospital President and Chief Executive William Considine said in a news release. “This will solidify our long relationship with East Liverpool City Hospital and allow us another way to fulfill our promise to care for all children as we would our own and to work tirelessly so all children can reach their full potential.”
Children’s increasingly has been forging partnerships with other facilities across Northeast Ohio in recent years to run specialty pediatric units.
The pediatric hospital already operates the pediatric unit at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna and the neonatal intensive care units at Akron General Medical Center, Summa Akron City Hospital and St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown.
Crowded ERs
The more crowded the ER, the more likely you are to die if you end up admitted to the hospital.
That’s the dire finding of a new study published this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, the professional journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University found patients admitted to the hospital from the emergency department during times of high overcrowding died more often than similar patients admitted when the ER wasn’t as crowded.
“ER crowding is dangerous,” lead study author Dr. Benjamin Sun of Oregon Health and Science University said in a news release. “We looked at nearly a million admissions through emergency departments across California, a large number of patients. Crowding was associated with 5 percent greater odds of inpatient death.”
Sun said emergency department overcrowding is expected to get worse in the coming years “because of volume, complexity and acuity of emergency patients.”
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or cpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell.