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Commissioners approve budget amendment to buy second CT scanner for Effingham Health System
Summary
The Effingham County Board approved a FY2026 budget amendment allocating funds (from the medical indigent mill rate) to purchase a Siemens 256-slice CT scanner for Effingham Health System, aiming to reduce patient transfers, add cardiac CT capability and provide redundancy for emergency operations.
The Effingham County Board of Commissioners on April 7 approved a budget amendment to fund a second CT scanner at Effingham Health System, a move county and hospital officials said will reduce transfers and expand local cardiac imaging.
Finance Director Mark Barnes presented the corrected amendment (resolution 026-010) and said the purchase will be paid from the county’s medical indigent mill rate while preserving the county’s annual obligation to the hospital system. "This amendment fixes multiple items," Barnes said, adding the appropriation also addresses sinkhole repairs, mold remediation and landscape equipment.
Josh Rape, radiology director at Effingham Health System, told the board the hospital’s single CT scanner (installed in 2021) has seen a roughly 165% increase in exam volume since FY2016 and the system is on track for about 10,500 CT exams this year. Rape described the planned scanner — a 256-slice Siemens "Propulse" dual-source unit — as faster, more reliable and capable of coronary CT angiography (cardiac CTA), which the hospital cannot currently perform. "When you rely on a single CT scanner, anything that goes wrong … means the ambulance and the patients they carry can't come to our hospital," Rape said, describing how redundancy will reduce diversions.
Rape also said the new scanner could lower radiation dose, shorten wait times and boost referrals and physician confidence in the hospital’s imaging capabilities. Board members asked how the purchase would affect hospital obligations; Barnes replied the county will still meet its annual indigent care obligations after the allocation.
Commissioners voted to approve the budget amendment after staff recommended the measure. The amendment will be incorporated into the FY2026 budget and the hospital will proceed with procurement and installation planning. No final contract or delivery date was specified at the meeting; commissioners approved the motion by voice vote.
