GE Healthcare has signed a $30 million deal with St. Luke’s University Health Network, one of the largest such agreements in the system’s 150-year history.
Under the pact, the Chicago-headquartered manufacturer will supply 21 computed tomography systems, marking it GE’s largest ever CT order in the U.S. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based St. Luke’s also is purchasing a Smart Subscription from GE, which provides artificial intelligence and software updates to prolong the life of scanners.
“We can now offer the most advanced CT technology to all of the communities we serve,” radiologist Hal L. Folander, MD, senior VP, chief medical strategy officer and network chairman of the department of radiology, said in a May 25 announcement from GE. “This provides our patients with access to this technology no matter where they go for their St. Luke’s care.”
The order builds on a 30-year relationship between the two organizations. Founded in 1872, nonprofit St. Luke’s operates 14 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites, employing over 18,000 team members. Its network spans 11 counties across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, recording annual net revenue of $3.2 billion. GE, meanwhile, has been around for 100 years and is an $18.3 billion business with 50,000 employees.
Efforts to bring the new technology to St. Luke’s started about 18 months ago, according to a separate announcement from the health system. Its Upper Bucks Campus will be the first location to install the new scanners (and also the first in the country). The full fleet will be deployed across the rest of the network within the next four years. Targeted uses for the technology will include, among other things, pediatrics, trauma cases and advanced cardiac exams.
“This is a massive project for both St. Luke’s and GE HealthCare—one of the largest GE HealthCare ever embarked on with CT scanners in both the U.S. and Canada,” J Anders, VP of CT at GE, said in the health system’s announcement. “Many others have made significant investments, but this type of holistic approach is extraordinary.”
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.