With its new state-of-the-art ultrasound systems, Odessa Regional Medical Center’s Perinatal Centers in Odessa and Midland got an upgrade aimed at providing a sense of security to expectant moms.
Donna Kelly, director of perinatal services, said the hospital purchased seven new Philips EPIQ Elite ultrasound systems. There are four sonogram rooms in Odessa and three in Midland, so Kelly said every sonogram room they have has new equipment in it.
“Maternal fetal medicine as a whole what we do is we see high-risk pregnancies. So if mamas have problems like diabetes, hypertension, or cardiac issues, or if they have twins or triplets, then we’ll see them for that. But there are times that babies have problems like they may have genetic risk, or their OB doctor find something on a sono that doesn’t look right. We have a lot of our physicians who will send us their 20- week scans, that means just normal pregnancy, but just doing a really good look at anatomy (at) 20 weeks gestation,” Kelly said.
“We will look to make sure that heart flows are good, all the anatomy structures are proper, baby’s growth is appropriate; placenta is functioning well. So in order to know how babies are doing, we have to be able to view those tiny structures. You have to realize that there are times we’re looking at babies when they’re no bigger than a big Lima bean …,” Kelly added.
She said they are looking at a heart and other structures that are “teeny, teeny tiny.”
“… To be able to penetrate through … mama’s tummy, and be able to view the heart and the kidneys of something that is 11 weeks gestation, 15 weeks gestation, that’s no bigger than an inch, two inches, it requires a very high-quality machine to be able to get in there and look,” Kelly said.
She noted that the machines have the capacity to track blood flow through the heart, the kidneys and the brain, for example.
“… This machine will let us really evaluate these teeny, tiny fetuses very early in the pregnancy and be able to determine early whether we have a problem here. … If we can diagnose problems early, there are fetal centers that we can refer our patients to that can do surgery in-utero and fix these issues …,” Kelly said.
She added that this gives mothers added assurance that if they see something they can move fast to get it corrected.
She said there are a lot of high-risk pregnancies in the area. They see a lot of women with gestational diabetes, hyptertension, mothers that are expecting twins and triplets and some genetic issues that run through family lines, among other issues.
They can now see issues at 12 weeks that didn’t get noticed previously until 24 weeks. “… It makes a big difference on what you can do to to be proactive and it will make a big difference to those moms. For most of our pregnancies, thank goodness, most of them are fine. And we can see them and we can send them on their way and reassure them that everything is good. And for all every mom in the world, that’s what they want to hear,” Kelly said.
“But for those moms who have a baby that everything isn’t quite perfect, we have the best chance there is to identify it early and be able to do something about it and send them to the very best. We have some contacts in Houston, Dallas and Austin. We send them where we know they’re going to get the very best; where would we want our daughters and our wives treated. …,” she added.
Kelly said when she started as a labor and delivery nurse in 1994, she worked with their first perinatologist.
“I’ve watched this area grow and develop. I’ve seen the impact. I’ve seen babies that are having birthdays that would not have had birthdays if we hadn’t been here. And I see these kids now, the patients that I saw, are now having babies. So not only would they not be here, but these babies they’re having wouldn’t be here so it makes me quite proud,” Kelly said.
“I’m very passionate about giving the very best level of care that we can to our community and the difference that it makes,” she added.
She added that they were able to diagnose a very uncommon heart anomaly in a baby within two weeks of getting this equipment. Kelly said they wouldn’t have been able to diagnose the condition prior.
After they got the machines, Kelly said a sonographer from the company spent days here working and teaching staff about what that machine can do and how to maximize it.
Kelly said the company representative will be back.
“Part of what we did was we negotiated education with that machine, so over the next couple of years there will be more and more training. As we get new staff in, we can do new training with them. …,” Kelly said.
She noted that every machine has its pluses and minuses.
“One of the nice things on this machine is you can have pre-sets. There are certain anomalies that you would want to see certain views a certain way. They can do pre-sets so that if you suspect an issue they can hit preset button. Those are some of the things the company can teach about this machine. … Plus, some of these company sonographers they’re smart. They have worked with the development of this machine and they know how to maximize it,” Kelly said.
The woman that they work with, Kelly said, has done maternal fetal medicine and obstetrics for a long time, so she can help the staff maximize the productivity of the machine.
She noted that the machine’s software is upgradable. “We will be doing that is it comes out. Generally, those kinds of upgrades don’t happen too often. This one has just been released, I mean within the last few months, so it will probably be a while before an upgrade comes out on it. With maternal fetal medicine, a regular OB doctor’s office will keep a machine for 20 years and they’re they’re not this level machine. Because for what they need, a basic sono machine will work. In maternal fetal medicine, you generally replace equipment every five years,” Kelly said. Kelly said mothers have been impressed by how clear the images are. They can also blow the images up to a larger size. “Most mothers don’t realize what a huge blessing it is because all they know is they’re seeing their baby on the screen. We have TVs in each room, so they can see their baby on the TV screen …,” Kelly said.
She noted that they are a consultant only practice, so patients have to be referred by an OB or a family practice physician.
“We see patients in Odessa, Midland. We have them from Andrews, Big Spring, Fort Stockton, Pecos, Alpine, Presidio; a couple from San Angelo; Hobbs. So we have a huge radius of patients this is going to benefit. It’s not just Odessa or Midland. This will affect the care in the region,” Kelly said. She added that she’s excited about the positive effect the new technology will have on maternity care in the region.
Ultrasound Technician McKenzie Cook said she thinks the machines are fantastic. “They’ve done really, really well. We have the new capabilities of really advanced color flow Doppler and 3D, 4D. We have really advanced 2D. We have so many more capabilities as far as calculations, measurements; all sorts of things that are really high-tech and advanced,” Cook said. “It took a while to get used to.”
Cook added that she feels blessed to be able to work on the new machines.
“I feel like I can give top of the line care,” Cook said.
She added that it has made her job easier. “The image quality is really improved a lot on a lot of our patients and our patient population. I really feel like I can improve and it’s given us the drive to try and advance our image quality, as well. … We’ve been working on adding new images as far as the heart and these machines help us do that every time …,” Cook said.
