(Seguin) – The future GRMC Women’s Imaging Center has just gotten a double dose of financial support. Not only has a local business stepped in but a department within Guadalupe Regional Medical Center has also contributed $10,000 toward the fundraising campaign for the future state-of-the-art imaging center for women.
The new space is being described as a “private, beautifully appointed center adjacent to the Imaging Department” and will feature individual exam rooms.
Hospital officials say once completed, the imaging center will provide patients with all the latest technology in combating women’s health issues including breast care and early cancer detection.
Dr. Doug Smith, is among the group of radiologists, San Marcos Medical Imaging, that operates the radiology department at GRMC. He says the team of professionals understand the importance of having such technology.
“We took over radiology here about eight or nine years ago and the hospital has been very supportive of our group and of imaging in the community and we just felt that we wanted to give back to the hospital and to the community for the opportunity to be able to work here and to be able to provide the community with some state-of-the-art imaging equipment and a state-of-the-art women’s imaging center,” said Dr. Smith.
Dr. Smith says the imaging center will provide all the basic care while utilizing all the state-of-the-art technology in a more comfortable hospital environment for women.
“The new equipment allows us to do minimal invasive biopsies here at the hospital without having to have an outside vendor come say once a week or once a month. We can do it any day, you know more for patient convenience and then we are building a whole women’s imaging center where it’s a little more comfortable and a little more private as opposed to being just in a normal mammogram room getting the biopsy so it’s very beneficial for the community, for the patients,” said Dr. Smith.
Also contributing to the future women’s imaging center at GRMC is local business The Koehler Company. Company President Paul Mueller, says the contribution is just one more way to support the healthcare that’s being made available to residents here in Seguin.
“The Koehlers’ have a long history of participating with the hospital and we’ve been a big supporter for 20-30 years at least and so we want to continue our support of the hospital. They are vital to our community and we want to participate in the vitality of our community,” said Mueller.
Sharing more details about the new GRMC Women’s Imaging Center is JD Davis, GRMC director of Imaging. Davis says he’s excited to unveil this new level of care.
“A couple of years ago when I got to GRMC, I noticed that there wasn’t a dedicated women’s imaging center and wanted to kind of separate that service from the regular radiology imaging service, so we had a vision of coming up with a women’s imaging center and partnered with Siemen with their latest radiology equipment which is going to give us the 3D tomography breast imaging. It will also be able to do 3D breast ultrasound, also stereotactic biopsy invasive procedures. So, it’s going to be a one stop shop for imaging and will be able to do all the services from screening to invasive radiology procedures,” said Davis.
Davis says the new imaging center will become a one stop area for breast healthcare – helping to see patients all the way through the process.
“We didn’t have stereotactic biopsy capabilities so a lot of the patients would come here for their screening. If there was an area of interest that the radiologist wanted additional (tests), they would come back for their breast ultrasound or additional views which we call the diagnostic mammography and then all that would be sent to the referring physician or specialist and the stereotactic biopsy portion kind of stuff was done at other places. So we have brought the stereotactic biopsy portion of it in house along with the state-of-the-art 3D breast ultrasound. No other hospital in the area has that so that will be a great asset to the community to have that. All the continuum of service will be available at the women’s imaging center. They will be able to get their screening, their diagnostic follow-up mammogram, their stereotactic biopsy if there is a little area of interest that they need a biopsy to get pathology on it. They will also be able to get a complete breast ultrasound to include the 3D breast ultrasounds and a lot of patients yearly get bone density with their mammography. We’ll have that service too.” said Davis.
Davis says the new women’s imaging center is set to open as early as next month.
“It is estimated to be open towards the end of February, no later than March. We are in phase one and two of construction. The front end of the imaging center is open, and we’ll put into operations and use one of the 3D tomography equipment. We will be able to have access to (it) while we are working on the back portion of the imaging center. But the entire imaging center, itself, with all the advance equipment to include bone density, state-of-the-art equipment will probably be towards the end of February, early March,” said Davis.
The Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation continues to raise funds for its $500,000 campaign goal for the new imaging center. To donate visit grmedfoundation.org or call 830-401-1385.