CRMC Finance Committee Approves $1.17M Purchase For New CT Simulator

Cookeville Regional’s finance committee approved a 1.173 million purchase to replace the Cancer Center’s CT simulator.

Radiation Oncologist Dr. Algis Sidrys said that the simulator is an integral part of planning a patient’s treatment. He said that every patient will use the simulator at least one time during their cancer care.

“It is not a treatment machine it’s strictly a planning,” Sidrys said. “It’s to help us map out as accurately as possible where the radiation is going to go, and more importantly where it’s not going to go.”

Sidrys said that without a working CT simulator, they are “dead in the water.” Chief Financial Officer Tommye Rena Wells said that they thought the 14-year-old technology could last longer, but that the system keeps failing.

Oncologist Dr. Deborah Jiang said that other CT scans are not suitable for the job because they don’t have the focused lasers needed for the task. Sidrys said that the success of the system requires very specific and precise mechanics.

“We have to be accurate within two millimeters of a one millimeter circle,” Sidrys said. “And if anybody is an engineer in here, you know that is actually very difficult to do. You have to have very precise lasers. And now with people moving into less and less treatment fractions or number of treatments per patients, we deliver a much higher concentration of radiation to a small area, so it’s extremely important that we be precise and the radiation go exactly where we want it to.”

Wells said that the lead time for receiving the equipment is estimated at 12 to 16 weeks. CEO Paul Korth said that they expect the equipment to last for some 10 to 12 years.