Printer-friendly format

With small specialty imaging centers pop-ping up all over Acadiana, local hosp-tals are jumping head-on into the fray. In February, Opelousas General Health System broke ground on its stand-alone facility in Sunset. Following close behind was Lafayette General Medical Center, which began demolition of the second floor of the Burdin Riehl Center to accommodate its own diagnostic headquarters in May.

The Outpatient Diagnostic Center in Sunset is a joint venture between Opelousas General Health System and OGH Imaging, L.L.C. OGHS staff radiologist, Dr. Richard Lastrapes, says that this physician/hospital partnership currently has about 37 physician investors, but more shares are in the offering. He explains that St. Landry Parish-based doctors saw a need for full-service diagnostic imaging in this area. "We have come together to create this outpatient imaging facility in Sunset, which we all know is an underserved community medically," he says. "We thought that it would be a great place to start, especially as the growth is occurring from Lafayette to Carencro and towards Opelousas from Eunice, and capture a certain market of patients who may have more difficulty finding medical imaging or traveling further distances to get quality imaging studies."

Area patients will have access to state-of-the-art imaging at the single-story, 10,300 square foot facility. The $6 million center is offering the newest scanning technology, including a 1.5 Tesla MRI and a 16-slice CT. Additionally, two ultrasound units with four-dimensional capability for fetal imaging will be onsite. To complete the package, the center will also have digital routine radiology and fluoroscopy.

The Sunset imaging center will be one of the few sites in the state with digital mammography. "We have two of them - one at Opelousas General and one will be out at the outpatient imaging center," Lastrapes says. "It's the only two that I know of which are affiliated with one facility - probably in this region."

Lastrapes anticipates that the center will be open by its projected November 18 completion date. So far, approximately 40 physicians, mostly from the Opelousas area, are affiliated with the facility. Target patients will be those along the I-49 corridor from Alexandria to Lafayette. "We're going to provide the most advanced imaging techniques available in this area," he says.

Like OGHS, Lafayette General Medical Center is in the midst of constructing a self-contained diagnostics center with the latest technologies available under one roof. The new facility, Lafayette General Imaging, L.L.C., is a joint venture between LGMC and 42 physicians. These doctors represent a cross-section of specialties, including family practice, general surgery, gastroenterology, orthopedics, urology and oncology.

Located on the second floor of LGMC's Burdin Riehl Center, the new imaging department will spread over 5,300 square feet. With $8 million in equipment, the center offers some of the most advanced technology in the area. Besides a 1.5 Tesla short-bore MRI and 64-slice CT, the facility will offer a PET/CT scan. Patrick Gandy, the lead executive on the imaging project, says the PET/CT will be the first in Lafayette. The center will also have ultrasound and general radiography.

"We feel that the different modalities or services that we are bringing together under one imaging center makes it unique, versus some of other centers in town where they might just have an MRI or CT," Gandy says. "The equipment that we have will be the latest technology that's available on the market, and each one of the services will be available at the center. So, from a technology standpoint, we feel like our center will differentiate itself from the other centers in town."

Gandy says Lafayette General Imaging's goal is to offer "user-friendly" service. By housing the facility in a medical office building, rather than the hospital, the participating physicians hope to make the imaging experience less intimidating for patients. The plan is to allow clients to register quickly, access their service, then leave.

For doctors, the center aspires to provide timely reports for quicker diagnosis and treatment. Lafayette Radiology Associates is providing the interpretive radiology services.

The project, which started in May, is expected to be complete in late September. "We feel that ultimately, the patients are going to want to have access to the best technology available," Gandy says. "We feel that our center will be competitive with any in the city, and we truly feel like our center will be competitive with any center in the entire state."

Tags:

None

Do you know someone else who would like to see this?
Your Email:
Their Email:
Comment:	(Will be included with e-mail)
Secret Code	In the box below, enter the Secret Code exactly as it appears above *