Computed Tomography (CT or CAT Scan)
Take Me Out to the Ball Game!
Young Boston Red Sox fans can "root, root, root for the home team" even while getting a computed tomography (CT) scan on the hospital's new 64-slice multidetector (MDCT) scanner.
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The powerful new machine didn't come with peanuts or Cracker Jack, but patients enjoy the Fenway Park ambiance of the procedure room, with the baseball diamond on the floor and the fans -- doctors, nurses, and technologists included -- among the Muppet-like figures in the "stands" on the walls.
"The kids walk in and they don't even see the CT scanner," said Linda Poznauskis, technical director for the Department of Radiology. "They like to look on the walls and recognize the people who take care of them."
One "fan" they like to spot is CT Operations Manager (and diehard Yankees fan) Richard Cappock, who is pictured in the stands with a (gasp!) Yankees cap atop his head. "There's a lot of fun in it," says Poznauskis. "All the kids know him and they all get into that conversation with him about the Yankees. We're all baseball crazy around here."
The Red Sox room is the latest addition to the CT suite, which also has a beach-themed scanner and procedure room [see Surf's Up!]. With the help of the hospital's art consultants, Wilkins Art Associates, artist Daniel "Danny O" O'Connor of North Adams was brought in to create art that would hide the CT scanner and produce a happy environment for patients.
Technologists Kara Pomeroy celebrates the opening of the new room.It was a labor of love on everyone's part. O'Connor was inspired by artwork made by his late sister, who had once been at patient at Children's. Hospital engineers helped work out the baseball-diamond pattern on the vinyl tile floor, and an architect advised on the design of cabinets that hide all but the most essential equipment. Cappock suggested making the CT scanner's opening, or gantry, look like a baseball. And CT director/passionate Red Sox fan Michael Callahan, MD, encouraged the inclusion of a little Red Sox-Yankees rivalry in the decor.
