Carson Valley Medical Center | Healthy Carson Valley | Winter 2020

Innovative technology HEALTHY CARSON VALLEY is published as a community service for the friends and patrons of CARSON VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER, 1107 U.S. Highway 395 N., Gardnerville, NV 89410-5304, telephone 775-782-1500, website cvmchospital.org . Jeff Prater, MHA, CVMC Chief Executive Officer Joey Crandall Marketing Coordinator Information in HEALTHY CARSON VALLEY comes from a wide range of medical experts. If you have any concerns or questions about specific content that may affect your health, please contact your healthcare provider. Models may be used in photos and illustrations. 2020 © Coffey Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. ceased their chemotherapy programs entirely. But CVMC leadership is committed to ensuring continued availability of chemotherapy to patients within our community. The remodel, which opened in late 2019, expands the pharmacy to more than twice its former size, allowing technicians to serve the growing needs of CVMC’s various departments. “It’s a state-of-the-art space,” says CVMC Pharmacy Manager Greg Ponsness. “We were able to include all of the most current nationally recognized standards for sterile compounding.” The upgrade includes a compounding room and a complex, environmentally safe exhaust hood specifically for mixing and handling drug treatments like chemotherapy. “We were able to add aseptic ‘clean room’ spaces and hoods to provide improved sterile compounding environments and improved safety for our patients,” Ponsness says. “The compounding room provides improved safety for our employees and the environment. This addition was crucial as it allowed us to continue to provide chemotherapy to patients who are in need of it within our community.” New pharmacy —Continued from page 1 ➜ GET CHECKED Call 775-782-1533 for more information or to schedule an appointment for your annual mammogram. AS PART OF the continued effort to provide the highest possible level of care to the Carson Valley community, Carson Valley Medical Center has added a number of exciting upgrades to its advanced diagnostic imaging services. A clearer picture Last summer, crews installed a 128-slice computed tomography (CT) machine in the diagnostic imaging department on CVMC’s main campus. CT scans can be used to quickly identify injuries to the lungs, heart and vessels, liver, spleen, kidneys, or other internal organs; guide biopsies and other procedures; plan for and High-tech solutions Imaging upgrades mean even better care assess the results of surgery; and plan and properly administer radiation treatments. The 128-slice machine allows an increased ability to perform cardiac studies, respiratory studies and other important diagnostics. It acquires 128 images, or slices, during a scan—CVMC’s previous machine provided only 64 slices. Those images can be adapted into three-dimensional (3-D) renderings and also show blood flow over time for whole organs, such as the brain. Doing more with DEXA This past fall, CVMC installed a new dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan machine at its Job’s Peak Internal Medicine & Family Practice location in Gardnerville. The DEXA machine uses X-ray imaging to measure bone mineral density, which helps with the diagnosis of osteoporosis— the gradual loss of calcium, as well as structural changes, in the bones. Osteoporosis causes bones to become thinner, more fragile and more likely to break. DEXA scans can also help measure an individual’s risk of bone fractures. CVMC’s new machine is capable of scanning the hip, full spine, forearms or femurs, allowing for scan positions best suited to individual patients. The machine also produces more accurate body mass index and fat mass index readings, which can, for example, help track muscle mass in patients before and after surgeries. Both upgrades come on the heels of CVMC opening a new wide-angle 3-D mammography suite at the main campus in Gardnerville last year. The 3-D difference Three-dimensional mammography has quickly become the standard of care, giving patients the best chance for early and accurate diagnosis. The revolutionary technology works by taking X-ray pictures of each breast from many angles that are not available in traditional mammography. The tube moves in a 50-degree arc around the breast, taking 25 images during the exam. Those images are then sent to a computer and assembled into a 3-D picture of each breast. The result is a clearer image that helps radiologists look inside the breast, layer by layer, to find tumors better than with standard mammography. 2 Carson Valley Medical Center • Winter 2020

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