Pulse

The image of serenity

Just the thought of an MRI makes some patients anxious, so more providers are offering spalike services and homey atmospheres to help calm them.

By SUSAN ASCHOFF, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 28, 2003

LARGO -- An MRI scan could uncover why Hilda Terrell suffers debilitating vertigo.

But the claustrophobic tube and loud thumping of the machine might trigger weeks of dizziness and nausea due to her condition.

"I was extremely apprehensive," Terrell says of the procedure scheduled at Morton Plant Bardmoor Outpatient and Surgery Center in Largo.

Instead, her appointment began and ended in a softly lit room with palm trees and sandy beaches painted on the walls and Terrell, a Pinellas Park resident, serenely seated in an armchair. Calming music played. Creams and oils scented with cucumber and lavender were offered to dab under her nose or spritz on a cloth to place beside her head during the 20 minutes in the machine.

From the beginning, when staffers greeted her by name and solicitously talked her through the procedure, she says she felt safe.

"Everything," says Terrell, "is very soothing."

Morton Plant Bardmoor officially begins offering its "Comfort MRIs" next month. A sign near the street reads: MRI the New Way -- Relaxed. Spalike services have been added to the medical screening to ease patients' fears and calm the estimated 15 percent who are "hysterical by the time they get here," says Dave Nelson, director of imaging for Morton Plant Mease Health Care.

Although an MRI is painless, some people arrive "self-sedated" with alcohol, Nelson says. A patient lies on a table and must remain still, his head secured, as his body is moved through the machine's tube.

"The fact that we're acknowledging their fears is sometimes enough," Nelson says.

Patients are encouraged to visit before their appointments to allay apprehension.

To add comfort to the equation, the center tapped existing research on what helps people relax. At Bardmoor, patients can watch a movie or get a foot massage. Family members may accompany them. Valium is available.

"We talk to our team members about the power of touch," Nelson says. Sometimes reassurance is as simple as a hand resting on the patient's arm.

Such touchy-feely medicine also makes good business sense. In a marketplace with increasing numbers of outpatient centers, clinics and even mobile buses offering medical tests and screenings, a hospital can no longer rely solely on its size and longevity to draw patients.

"Hospitals are traditionally the site for complex medical services. But they've had to make themselves more appealing," says Rick Wade, senior vice president at the American Hospital Association, a national group with more than 41,000 member hospitals.

He says the comfort trend began in earnest in the 1980s, when childbirth moved from a sterile operating room to a homey birthing space with dad as coach.

At South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City, a recently completed renovation included more private rooms for patients, with sleep couches for a companion to stay overnight.

St. Anthony's Outpatient Center at Carillon, under construction in north St. Petersburg, will use specific colors and glass panels to evoke a "watery peace," says Dana Novak, public relations manager for St. Anthony's Health Care. Both patients and workers in the surrounding office park will be able to schedule massages.

Plans for a $30-million renovation beginning this year at St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg include a "healing" garden outside and water features and more natural light inside.

A landmark study in the mid 1980s found that postsurgical patients with a view of trees in full foliage had shorter hospital stays and required less medication than patients whose windows overlooked a brick wall.

A patient's scheduled procedure need not be painful or lengthy to traumatize. An MRI generally takes 20 minutes to an hour, depending on whether an open MRI machine or a conventional, tubelike machine, which provides more precise images, is needed for diagnosis.

Many people still decline, saying they are too claustrophobic to undergo a scan.

But the diagnostic technique is increasingly requested by doctors because, unlike X-rays, MRIs use no harmful radiation and provide images of superior clarity. An MRI, an acronym for magnetic resonance imaging, uses a powerful magnet to resonate, or vibrate, the nuclei within cells, which emit a radio signal translated by computer to form thousands of two-dimensional or three-dimensional pictures of soft tissues or bones in the body. There is no additional charge for a Comfort MRI. Medical facilities typically charge about $1,200 to $2,500 for an MRI, but patients with health insurance pay only a small portion of that amount.

Terrell's doctor believes her vertigo may be due to scarring in her inner ear caused by a childhood bout with polio. The MRI could reveal its existence and characteristics. Terrell, who reports that she once threw up on a tame ride at Disney World because the seat vibrated, had no difficulties with her MRI.

"It was the idea of me taking control."

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