This scientific session will cover an investigation at the Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) that showed how many taxpayer dollars could be saved if the radiology department intelligently went "green" by turning of equipment when not in use.

While a radiology fellow at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Dr. Prasanth Prasanna conducted a study at the nearby Baltimore VAMC facility to determine the potential for realistic energy savings in the radiology department and possibly in the remainder of the hospital. He will describe how his group estimated computer energy use and cost, and how various modality and PACS workstations and display monitors were assessed in both active and standby states by plugging them into a Kill A Watt electricity meter (P4400, P3 International).

Prasanna and colleagues calculated energy use for an eight-hour workday, a 16-hour overnight standby period, and 24-hour standby. Monitors ranged in electricity use from 0.16 kWh to 1.29 kWh and workstations used 0.53 kWh to 4.32 kWh.

The group determined that if all workstations and monitors were running 24 hours a day, the electricity cost would be $15,154. If the majority of equipment was turned off after the eight-hour workday or when not in use, the department could save nearly 83,900 kWh of electricity and realize a cost savings of more than $9,000.

A quality storyboard presentation (LL-QSE-WE1A) by Dr. Colin McCarthy of St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin will outline energy consumption and waste in that hospital's radiology department on Wednesday, November 30, from 12:15 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Lakeside Learning Center.