Washington County Hospital approves purchase of EEG machine

The Washington County Hospital is one step closer to offering electroencephalography as the board of trustees moved to approve the purchase of an EEG machine that will allow for the practice to be done in-house.

WCHC Chief Nursing Officer Andrea Leyden explained the machine will allow staff to monitor brain waves in-house instead of sending patients elsewhere for ther service.

'It's a way for us to monitor brain waves so we can tell what's going on,” she said. 'Oftentimes it's used for seizure disorders or used to look at brain activity for sleep and wake cycles.”

She said the machine will be in the office of Dr. Todd Ajax, neurologist at WCHC, which will allow him to see patients ages 2 and above. The machine works by placing a cap on the patient's head that studies the brain waves.

Leyden said the importance of this machine is that it allows for Dr. Ajax to monitor the activity right in his office as the patient is near or later as time allows because the activity will be recorded and saved to the computer.

'I think this is going to be a valuable service for us to be able to provide here at Washington County Hospital and will use the service close to where he has the office so he can check in on the patient,” she said.

Currently, Dr. Ajax is referring out for this service but with the new machine will be able to provide four tests a week. A quote for a new machine at a price of $25,848.73 was approved by the board. Leyden said the service will begin toward the end of May 2019.