Those who have faced a cancer diagnosis know the emotional toll it can take. To give those in the Vancouver community a place of refuge during a difficult time, Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center early this year opened the new Douglas and Heather Greene Legacy Breast Health Center, which combines the medical center’s existing breast health services and expands the services offered.
Previously, patients had to check in at the imaging department for mammograms, ultrasounds and biopsies, then be led through the medical center’s inner hallways to examination rooms. Now, patients are able to check in at the breast center’s separate entrance, greeted by the warm, independent reception and waiting areas. All the breast services that had been offered across the medical center’s campus have also been relocated to this location, giving patients a single, convenient site for their care.
As part of the new breast center, the medical center added a second 3-D mammography machine, new biopsy units that give staff more flexibility in how they position patients for procedures and a breast surgeon, who will split her time between Salmon Creek and Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center in Portland.
For the next phase of Salmon Creek’s comprehensive cancer care campaign, leaders plan to add integrated services in the suite next to the breast center, where they built office space for genetic, financial and nutritional counseling services. Eventually, they also hope to add acupuncture, yoga and art therapy to the breast center’s offerings.
Read more about the new breast center in an article in The Columbian. (Tim Pfarr)
