CT Suite Essentials Buying Guide
Practical guidance and proven tools to help CT teams strengthen safety, patient comfort, workflow, and compliance in today’s high-volume imaging environment.
Why CT Essentials Matter
CT departments are the engine of modern diagnostics, balancing high patient volumes, complex contrast administration, and advancing technology. Teams face constant pressure to deliver fast, accurate scans while also managing dose, documentation, and patient comfort.
With the right accessories and supplies, CT departments can optimize daily routines, improve the patient experience, and stay aligned with evolving standards.
How to Use This Guide
We’ve organized essential CT accessories and supplies into four categories to streamline evaluation and purchasing.
Safety: Protect patients and staff with supplies that support safe contrast management, quick spill clean-up, and proper sharps handling.
Patient Comfort: Improve patient comfort with measures that reduce stress, limit motion, and help ensure scan quality.
Workflow: Organize prep spaces and supply systems to keep exams on schedule and throughput on track.
Regulatory & Compliance: Stay survey-ready with safeguards that support dose reporting, accreditation, and consistent documentation.
Safety
Managing Contrast Safely
In the high-volume, injection-driven CT environment, safety is shaped by radiation protocols and the daily realities of contrast administration.
Patient screening, dose monitoring, spill clean-up, and sharps require vigilance every day, every exam. With the right safeguards, protocols, and tools in place, CT teams deliver safe, efficient care.
Focus Areas
Choose system-compatible, cost-effective, single-use disposables, such as injector syringes and tubing, to address both safety and budget needs.
Keep contrast clean-up kits and clear disinfection protocols at hand to minimize downtime and protect sensitiv%e equipment.
Place sharps containers in every prep area to ensure safe handling of contrast materials is consistent and visible to staff and patients.
Marketlab’s Top Safety Solutions
Pro Tip: Balancing Safety and Cost Management
Consider using advanced injector systems like multi-patient kits or syringeless, multi-use syringes (where allowed). Research shows that multidose contrast delivery systems reduce contrast media waste and can cut costs per contrastenhanced CT exam by more than $6.*
* Zhang et al. “Cost-Minimization Analysis of Multidose and Single-Dose IV Contrast Packaging,” American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), March 2020.
Patient Comfort
Reducing Motion, Optimizing Scans
Even though CT exams are relatively quick, patient comfort still plays a critical role in scan quality. Anxiety, discomfort, or difficulty with IV access can all lead to motion artifacts, repeat scans, and extended exam times.
Simple comfort measures – from table pads and warmed blankets to reliable positioning aids – help patients stay relaxed and still, while also supporting hygiene and compliance standards.
Focus Areas
Replace CT table pads and slickers regularly to maintain hygiene, reduce infection risk, and enhance comfort.
Use positioning aids such as knee wedges, arm supports, and security straps to stabilize patients and minimize the risk of motion artifacts.
Provide warmed blankets and supportive touches to reduce patient anxiety, prevent repeat scans, and save time.
Marketlab’s Top Comfort Solutions
Did you know?
Vein finders significantly improve first-stick success rates, especially in patients with difficult IV access. Avoiding multiple IV sticks reduces patient stress and discomfort.
Workflow
Efficiency That Holds Up Under Pressure
CT demand is projected to grow by 10-15% over the next decade.* High exam volumes leave little room for inefficiency because every delay ripples through the day’s schedule.
Organized supply systems, efficient prep spaces, and reliable transfer tools keep exams moving smoothly and help departments stay on pace with demand.
*The Growing Demand for Imaging Services: Key Trends Shaping the Future, Vizient, 2025.
Focus Areas
Standardize supply carts and cabinets so syringes, tubing, and contrast materials are always stocked, accessible, and easy to replenish between exams.
Equip prep areas with IV start carts and draw chairs that streamline patient setup and reduce bottlenecks during high-volume shifts.
Use transfer boards and tools that minimize delays, support patient safety, and ease strain on technologists.
Marketlab’s Top Quality Control Solutions
Did you know?
CT technologists manage a wide range of tasks: patient preparation, scanning, IV contrast administration, image quality control, equipment maintenance, and documentation. Workflow experts recommend parallel tasking and workflow segmentation to reduce cycle times and increase patient throughput.
Regulatory & Compliance
Making Oversight Manageable
Dose reporting, accreditation, and survey expectations shape CT practice every day, making compliance a constant part of care. Agencies like the American College of Radiology (ACR) and Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) require CT facilities to meet strict accreditation and equipment standards.
With protocols optimized and records up to date, teams can demonstrate standards in action while protecting both patients and accreditation status.
Focus Areas
Track and document Size-Adjusted Dose (SAD) for every exam to align with CMS requirements and ensure exposures remain within accepted thresholds.
Build accreditation readiness into daily routines with physics checks, protocol reviews, and QC tasks carried out on a consistent schedule.
Keep dose metrics and contrast records organized in a consistent format so surveyors see clear, reliable documentation.
Marketlab’s Top Compliance Solutions
Did you know?
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will require all CT facilities to report radiation exposure data by 2027. The requirement aligns with the standards for accreditation by The Joint Commission (TJC).
CT Compliance Checklist
ACR/IAC: Annual physics testing and protocol optimization under a medical physicist.
Joint Commission: Submit quarterly eCQM data (dose + image quality).
CMS: Track and report Size-Adjusted Dose (SAD) for every exam.
Documentation: Maintain organized records of dose metrics, protocols, and contrast use.
CT Essentials in Action
CT teams succeed by balancing speed, accuracy, and patient-centered care in an environment defined by complex contrast administration and rising exam volumes. Safety, comfort, workflow, and compliance aren’t abstract goals, they’re daily requirements that determine exam quality and efficiency.
The right accessories and supplies make it possible to meet these demands without interruption.
Connect with a Marketlab expert at 800-237-3604 or service@marketlab.com
