A new ultrasound machine,

purchased by the Sublette County Rural Health

Care District as part of a package to upgrade

radiology equipment in Sublette County, is up

and running at the Pinedale Clinic.

The technology on the new Canon Aplio

i700 Ultrasound features improved imaging, a

user-friendly console, expanded arms to reach

smaller body parts and greater depth to screen

all patients, said ultrasonographer Sara Simkins.

“The new machine has so much more

depth,” she explained. “It scans through additional

layers of skin so we can examine people

of different sizes. The pixels and the focus are

so much better and allow us to get exceptional

images. The difference between the old machine

and new machine is night and day and

expands the range of exams that we do.”

A common misperception is that ultrasounds

are used only to scan babies in a mother’s

womb. But ultrasounds are actually used to

provide images “in real time” of many parts of

the body, from livers, kidneys and thyroids to

abdomens, pelvic areas and legs, Simkins said.

The scans allow providers to detect abnormalities

like hernias in soft tissue, gallbladder

stones, cysts on ovaries or blood clots in legs

that might lead to deep vein thrombosis (DBT),

a life threatening condition.

“You may not be able to diagnose a disease

right away,” Simkins said. “But the ultrasound

gives you a picture, a way to start looking at

something in the body.”

Ultrasounds rely on sound waves to scan the

Robert Galbreath photo

Ultrasonographer Sara Simkins demonstrates the new ultrasound machine by taking an image of her thyroid.

body and can be a safer alternative to devices

that use radiation. The new ultrasound gives

doctors the ability to do what is called a “fast

scan” in trauma situations to detect if there is

internal bleeding, Simkins explained.

“It’s nice to know that if children have internal

bleeding, we can use an ultrasound rather

than sticking them in the CT with lots of radiology,”

she said.

The new ultrasound at the Pinedale Clinic

is portable and has moving parts so ultrasonographers

like Simkins have the flexibility

to reach all around a patient without injuring

themselves or the patient. The machine can

also connect to an ethernet cable, allowing

Simkins to send high-quality images to doctors

at St. John’s Medical Center in the span

of 10 minutes.

The ultrasound purchase is part of a bid

by the district to replace equipment in the radiology

department that has reached “end of

life” and can no longer be serviced, said David

Doorn, district administrative director. Due

to cuts over the past year, the full cost for the

new ultrasound machine was already included

in the regular budget and no additional funds

were needed, Doorn said.

The district carried out a study in 2017 with

St. John’s to determine how many Sublette

County patients had to travel to Jackson to

receive ultrasound scans that the district was

unable to perform with the old equipment. The

study showed a loss of 192 procedures due to

outdated equipment, Doorn stated.

“We have had the new ultrasound machine

for half a month and have already doubled the

number of ultrasound procedures that we usually

perform,” he said.