Toshiba America Medical Systems is promoting a report from Kaleida Stroke Care Center in Buffalo, NY, showing how the center achieved $1.31 million in annualized cost savings by using its Aquilion One CT scanner to diagnose acute stroke.
The center recently completed the second phase of a study that analyzed patient and physician benefits from acute stroke being diagnosed rapidly.
Researchers decided to quantify the benefits of using the Aquilion One scanner by conducting a noncontrolled study evaluating imaging procedures, inpatient length of stay, and discharge disposition. The study compared inpatient datasets from July to September 2007, prior to the Aquilion One installation, with datasets from July to September 2009 and from July to September 2010. They evaluated the top three ICD-9-CM discharge codes.
Patients diagnosed and treated for an unspecified cerebral artery occlusion with cerebral infarction (ICD-9-CM 434.91) experienced the largest median hospital stay reduction, from 6.03 days in 2007 to 5.24 days in 2010. Patients with cerebral embolism with cerebral infarction (434.11) experienced the second largest median hospital stay reduction, from 7.3 days in 2007 to 6.93 days in 2010, and those with unspecified transient cerebral ischemia (435.9) showed a slight improvement in length of stay. The center reported an annualized cost savings in 2007 of approximately $762,000.
In addition to the use of Aquilion One, which can be used to perform whole-brain perfusion and digital angiography, the report also attributed the cost savings to the facility's multidisciplinary approach to diagnosing and treating stroke patients, as well as enhanced education and training.
