C-T scanner vaults PMH into new millinium
D e m i « T.6 1 z o 1 1
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Lucane, UR 974J3
Pioneer Memorial Hospital administrator Victor Vander Does, radiology department head Gaylin Fickel
and radiographer Evelyn Carroll show the new C-T scan machine now up and running at the hospital in
Heppner.
V O L 119
NO. 51
8 Pages
Wednesday, December 20,2000
Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon
Snow day!
v Amanda Crosswhite, 13, Jennifer Whalen, 13, William Crosswhite, 12, and Macy Burford, seven, all
Heppner, had fun downtown last week while the snow was still on the ground.
Local woman donates toys to Shrine Hospital
Lillian
Sweek
of
Heppner has done something that
will make this Christmas season
a little happier for a lot of ill
children.
Sweek, who has been
collecting stuffed animals of all
kinds for many years, has
donated six bags-around 150
toys-to the Shrine Hospital for
their little patients.
"You don't realize what
good
you
have
done,"
commented Howard Bryant of
Heppner, hospital representative
for the Tri-County (Morrow,
Wheeler and Gilliam counties)
Shrine Club.
Sweek says that she didn't
have room to display all of her
stuffed animals, but wanted to
put them to good use. "I thought
maybe they could get some good
out of them." She says that many
of the toys had been given by her
son Greg and his wife Marsha
and their children, Tai and Ian,
also of Heppner.
Gordon Smith
to speak in
Hermiston
U.S. Senator Gordon H. Smith
will be Hemiston this Thursday,
Dec. 21, to attend a luncheon at
the Hermiston Community
Center.
A number of community leaders
and local organizations have
been invited to hear Senator
Smith speak on issues of concern
to Eastern Oregon.
The meeting will be held on
Thursday, Dec. 21, at noon at the
Hermiston Community Center,
415 S. Highway 395, Hermiston.
Howard Bryant and Lillian Sweek
Town and Country Banquet
The Heppner Chamber of
Commerce is preparing for their
annual
Chamber
member
luncheon and installation of
board of directors on Tuesday,
Jan. 9, at 11:30 a m. at All Saints
Parish Hall.
The annual Town and Country
Banquet to honor Willow Creek
Valley's First Citizens. Educator,
Youth and Business will be held
Thursday, Jan. 11. with social
hour at 6 p.m. and prime rib
dinner at 7 p.m. at the Elks.
Guest speaker will be Jack
Ohman, Portland Oregonian
political cartoonist. Call the
Heppner Chamber of Commerce,
676-5536, for reservations.
Stepping through the
door to the new C-T (Cat) Scan
room at Pioneer Memorial
Hospital in Heppner is a little
like stepping into the future.
The newly-remodelled
room, immaculate and built to
accommodate the hospital's
newly purchased C-T scanner, is
vaguely reminiscent of the film,
"2001 A Space Odyssey," and
will provide a link to the future
for PMH.
"We're hoping this kick
starts (the hospital)," said
administrator Victor Vander
Does. "It's going to be a
cornerstone for the future. It's a
standard of care. If you don't
have this service, you're not
serving the community."
The C-T scanner uses x-
rays to take images of the body
helically (in a spiral motion). The
resulting images are similar to a
stack of blocks, with each section
providing an eight-milimeter
picture of the patient's body.
And, the state-of-the-art
machine-with its own built-in-air
conditioner-does this all in a
mattei of seconds. According to
Evelyn Carroll, radiographer, and
Gaylin Fickel, head of the
radiology department at PMH,
the whole process, from
diaphragm to pelvis, takes only
around 45 seconds. From start to
finish, a patient would generally
be on the C-T table only around
five to 15 minutes. And, those
tending toward claustrophobia
need not be concerned, because
the machine is almost entirely
open. It is somewhat similar to
passing through a very large
donut.
Patients are often able to
wear a gown or their own
clothing, as long as it doesn't
have any metal on it, which
interferes with the scan.
After a patient has a C-T
scan, the film will be scanned
and then sent to a radiologist for
a reading. The film can also be
sent via the facility's tele
radiology system and eventually
the hospital will have the
capacity to send the image
directly through their computer.
The new scanner will
make not only make it easier for
local patients to obtain a C-T
scan, since they won't have to
travel out of town for the service,
but will also enable PMH
physicians to determine whether
a patient needs to be sent to
specialists elsewhere.
The C-T scanner can be
used to rule out injuries of the
spine, skull fractures, facial
fractures, stroke, bleeding in the
brain and brain and other tumors.
It will generally not be used for
broken bones, which can ber
diagnosed very well with regular
x-rays, according to Fickel and
Carroll.
Dr. Jacob Cambier is the
facility's primary radiologist, but
Carroll says the facility can scan
for any referring physician.
Previously most patients needing
C-T scans were sent to Good
Shepherd Hospital in Hermiston.
According to Carrol, the
new machine may improve the
Morrow County Health District's
chances
of
recruiting
physicians.
It will also improve the
district's
bottom
line.
Unfortunately, the scans don't
come cheap, ranging in the area
of $400 to $1,500. The C-T
machine itself cost the district
$350,000 (they got a $100,000
price reduction from the original
price of $450,000 by joining a
purchasing group) and the
computer, camera and processor
cost another $100,000.
Elective C-T studies will be
scheduled one day a week, but
scans can be done on an
emergency basis 24-hours a day.
seven days a week.
The machine is already
up and operational and. as of last
Friday, four patients had received
scans.
Carroll,
who
was
recently hired at PMH. has had
28 years experience as a
technologist and seven years
experience with C-T scans.
More is on the horizon
to update the hospital, according
to Vander Does. Once the district
receives its USDA loans,
construction is expected to begin
for new emergency, pharmacy
and special procedures rooms,
new boilers, a new elevator and a
new generator-"all those things
that are absolutely necessary."
says Vander Does.
HES students brighten
lives of Kosovo children
Heppner Elementary teacher Sherry Matteson and her first grade
students prepare to pack up supplies for children in Kosovo. S tudents
in the school worked to raise money to purchase the supplies.
Children at Heppner
Elementary School hope to
make the lives of children
halfway around the world a
little bit better. HES kids of all
ages worked for local businesses
and individuals this Christmas
season to raise money for their
special project. "Kids for
Kosovo."
As
of
Thursday,
December 14, the HFS kids had
raised $575, which teachers used
to purchase books, tablets,
crayons, paint sets and pencils to
send to children in Kosovo.
The children in Sherry
Matteson's first grade class even
voted to pack up the gift box on
the last day of school before
Christmas break this year-
mstcad of having a Christmas
party.
Friday deadline for
HEDC meeting
next week’s paper
Because of the Christmas
holiday, deadline for next week's
Gazette-Times will be this
Friday, December 22. at 5 p.m
Next week's newspaper
will be published on Wednesday
as usual.
Merry Christmas from
the staff at the Gazette-Times!
The annual meeting ot
Heppner Economic Development
Corporation (dba Willow Creek
Valley Economic Development
Group) w ill be held Wednesday,
Jan. 17, at 8:30 am . in the
Heppner
Ranger
District
conference room
The public is invited to attend
3€appif< 3€&£icUiif¿>
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We will be closed Monday, Dec. 25th
Morrow County Grain Growers
Lexington 989-8221 • 1 -800-452-7396
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