Imaging
Los Alamos Medical Center's Diagnostic Imaging Department offers state-of-the-art equipment in a warm, caring, hometown environment.
The department's services range from mammography to nuclear medicine, bone densitometry to ultrasound, CT scanning to MRI exams.
Imaging equipment is among, if not the most expensive equipment in the facility. At LAMC's these services demonstrate unique community partnerships.
Keep aBreast is a program begun several years ago by local cancer survivor Molly MacKinnon. Ms. MacKinnon believed strongly that her successful recovery was due in large part to early detection of breast cancer through mammography. She wanted to pass her good fortune on to other women and so began her Keep aBreast fund drive.
Through her efforts, the Keep aBreast fund was established at LAMC to help pay for mammograms for un- or underinsured women not eligible for the screening exams under another program (employer insurance, Medicaid, etc.) The program's administration has been assumed by the Hospital Auxiliary of LAMC. A physician referral is needed to access the program.
Bone densitometry is a program needed, asked for and brought to the community by community residents. In 1998, an LAMC board member was referred for a bone density scan. She was distressed to learn that the closest scanner available for this type of exam was in Santa Fe. She queried the board about obtaining such a machine. LAMC's administrator described the myriad capital requests on his desk, noting that it's always a struggle to keep up with advancing technology. Our board member, also a member of the Hospital Auxiliary of LAMC, left the meeting, noting that LAMC was losing 100% of the market share in bone density scanning.
She returned at the next meeting to say that she had presented her problem to the Auxiliary board, where the vote had been overwhelmingly in favor of their raising the nearly $60,000 needed to purchase a scanner. In record time - less than 6 months - the Auxiliary, through sales in its Lobby Shop, through bake and book sales, had, indeed, raised the money, and a bone density scanner now resides in LAMC's radiology department.
In recognition of the Auxiliary's next major purchase to the community, LAMC's administration, with the full cooperation of then chief radiologist Dr. David Williams, decided to price these exams not at the going rate from insurance companies but at the facility's cost. This enables access for women who might not otherwise be able to afford such an exam. It is this spirit of community partnership that inspired the Auxiliary's next major purchase of a new stereotactic mammography machine, at a cost of $180,000.
Those interested in scheduling diagnostic imaging should call 661-9211 or 661-9541. Most imaging procedures require a physician referral.