Listen live 
High Plains News
Digital Mammography in Rural Areas part 2
"Dodge City has digital mammo, Liberal has digital mammo, Scott City has digital mammo, and for St. Catherine Hospital being a referral center for Southwest Kansas I believe that we should be able to offer that, not just for the community here in Garden City, but for the other women that are in the surrounding counties that are closer to us than they would be for Dodge or Liberal or for Scott City," Lovins says.
Lovins doesn't just want to get the digital mammogram station so St. Catherine Hospital can compete with bigger cities, but because she believes the quality of the mammograms are better with digital than with traditional film images.
"The other thing with film screen combination is that there is always a little bit of a small gap between the film and the woman's breast so therefore it loses some of the image quality," she explains. "With digital mammography we will not lose that image quality. It will enhance breast images."
Because other places have digital mammogram stations, Lovins says women are leaving St. Catherine Hospital to go to the other places.
"We have had a lot of ladies come in and permanently transfer their films to Dodge City and to Witchita and it is a shame because we have an awesome facility here. And I just believe that if we had that digital mammogram unit here in Garden City that it would encourage those ladies to keep their patient care services here in town. They wouldn't have to travel.
Lovins also believes having a digital mammogram station will encourage women in the community to start getting regular mammograms.
"It will help the women of the community come in more often for their mammogram. Basically right now the women think that a film mammography is not very good, it is not picking up on those small variances on their breast tissues which it is. Film screen is still done in a lot of places. We want women to know breast care is very important to us."
The manager of the X-ray department of Comanche County Hospital in Coldwater, Becky Sherman has seen an increase in mammograms since the bus with a digital mammography station started visiting the hospital.
"Yes, we have had, I am scheduling into January right now, and um we are full for November and December as well as today and half of January," says Sherman.
Lovins hopes to have the digital mammography station at St. Catherine in 18 months. Because the equipment is expensive the Hospital has been doing fundraising to get the necessary money.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
(2010-11-30)
Listen Now:
GARDEN CITY, KAN
(hppr) -
If you go to St. Catherine Hospital in Garden City to get a mammogram, they will use a traditional film mammogram; however, the Director of Imaging Services, Lisa Lovins is trying to change that. She is trying to get a digital mammography station for the hospital.
null
"Dodge City has digital mammo, Liberal has digital mammo, Scott City has digital mammo, and for St. Catherine Hospital being a referral center for Southwest Kansas I believe that we should be able to offer that, not just for the community here in Garden City, but for the other women that are in the surrounding counties that are closer to us than they would be for Dodge or Liberal or for Scott City," Lovins says.
Lovins doesn't just want to get the digital mammogram station so St. Catherine Hospital can compete with bigger cities, but because she believes the quality of the mammograms are better with digital than with traditional film images.
"The other thing with film screen combination is that there is always a little bit of a small gap between the film and the woman's breast so therefore it loses some of the image quality," she explains. "With digital mammography we will not lose that image quality. It will enhance breast images."
Because other places have digital mammogram stations, Lovins says women are leaving St. Catherine Hospital to go to the other places.
"We have had a lot of ladies come in and permanently transfer their films to Dodge City and to Witchita and it is a shame because we have an awesome facility here. And I just believe that if we had that digital mammogram unit here in Garden City that it would encourage those ladies to keep their patient care services here in town. They wouldn't have to travel.
Lovins also believes having a digital mammogram station will encourage women in the community to start getting regular mammograms.
"It will help the women of the community come in more often for their mammogram. Basically right now the women think that a film mammography is not very good, it is not picking up on those small variances on their breast tissues which it is. Film screen is still done in a lot of places. We want women to know breast care is very important to us."
The manager of the X-ray department of Comanche County Hospital in Coldwater, Becky Sherman has seen an increase in mammograms since the bus with a digital mammography station started visiting the hospital.
"Yes, we have had, I am scheduling into January right now, and um we are full for November and December as well as today and half of January," says Sherman.
Lovins hopes to have the digital mammography station at St. Catherine in 18 months. Because the equipment is expensive the Hospital has been doing fundraising to get the necessary money.
© Copyright 2012, hppr
