Local Hospitals Make Proper Use Of CT Chest Scans

Judging from a report in Saturday's New York Times, hundreds of hospitals across the United States needlessly exposed patients to radiation by scanning their chests twice on the same day.

Performing two scans in succession, according to the Times article, is rarely necessary.  Yet some hospitals are doing that more than 80 percent of the time for their Medicare chest patients.

Double scans expose patients to extra radiation while at the same time heap millions of dollars in extra costs on an already overburdened Medicare program.

Four local hospitals measured in the study cited by the New York Times showed each using CT chest scans properly.

Here are the numbers for local hospitals:

Chester County Hospital, West Chester

• People receiving chest CT scans - 864
• Percentage scanned twice - 1%

Brandywine Hospital, Coatesville

• People receiving chest CT scans - 270
• Percentage scanned twice - 1%

Jennersville Regional Hospital, Jennersville:

• People receiving chest CT scans - 223
• Percentage scanned twice - 0%

Lancaster General Hospital, Lancaster:

• People receiving chest CT scans - 2,583
• Percentage scanned twice - 3%

Click here to read the entire article and view an interactive map of hospital performance.