Owned by Cape Radiology Group in Cape Girardeau.

Business Today

POPLAR BLUFF -- Bluff Radiology Group has brought bigger and more advanced MRI testing and CAT scans to the Poplar Bluff area.

Bluff Radiology Group/Kneibert Clinic recently opened on Westwood Boulevard between Comfort Inn and Commerce Bank North.

Bluff Radiology is owned by Cape Radiology Group in Cape Girardeau. Warren Miller manages both Bluff Radiology and Cape Radiology.

According to Mike Brown, MD, president of Cape Radiology, the advanced multi-slice CAT scanner and the large Eclipse magnet used in MRI testing at Bluff Radiology are state-of-the-art.

The Bluff Radiology building is shared by Kneibert Clinic.

The MRI is a high-field 1.5 testla magnet. It's one of the newest machines on the market and the only one of its kind in Poplar Bluff, according to Brown.

Brown said the Philips MX8000D multi-slice CAT scan at Bluff Radiology has only been on the commercial market eight months.

"It's four times faster with this machine than commercial single-slice scanners. The actual scan time on anything we do is a minute and a half or less," said Brown.

"It has a larger bore that patients move through so they don't have claustrophobia. The other advantage is it has higher resolution as far as image quality."

Bluff Radiology is staffed by five full-time employees -- two clerical, a registered nurse, a CAT scan technician and a MRI technician.

"All the imaging reading is done at Cape by our radiologists," Brown said. "As images are acquired and studies are finalized, technicians push a button and the images are immediately transferred over high-speed phone lines to Cape and show up in one of our three reading rooms. All the film and paperwork are digital."

Brown said after an image is received at Cape, the reading report is usually back to the patient's doctor within three to four hours.

Cape Radiology provides general radiology services such as reading X-rays, ultrasounds and mammographies to Kneibert Clinic and Ferguson Clinic in Sikeston, Saint Francis Medical Center and Southeast Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Dexter Memorial Hospital, and Union County Hospital in Anna, Ill.