Kellogg Clinic Goes Nuclear High-Tech Scanning Equipment Comes To Silver Valley, Ending Long Trips For Heart Patients

A scan that can predict heart attacks and other ailments is now available to Silver Valley residents.

Before last week, residents of Shoshone County had to make the 70-mile round trip to Kootenai Medical Center for nuclear medicine tests.

But those tests are now available at Mountain Health Care in Kellogg, through cooperation between the clinic, Shoshone Medical Center and Inland Cardiology Associates in Spokane.

“It means for them … one less trip outside of their place,” said Dr. Romeo Pavlic, founder of Inland Cardiology Associates. “They can now have a complete diagnostic work-up. Only if they need an angiogram or intervention do they need to come to Spokane.”

Nuclear medicine has been widely used for about two decades. Patients are injected with small amounts of radioactive material, which emit gamma rays. The rays can then be viewed with a special camera.

Unlike standard X-rays, which only take pictures of physical structures, nuclear medicine scans can assess function. They are most commonly used to check how well the heart is working. Nuclear medicine also can help diagnose certain cancers, strokes, and liver and kidney problems.

“It’s an important tool,” said Dr. Thomas Heston, a nuclear medicine specialist and family practice doctor who runs the new program. “If you get one of these tests and it comes back normal, your risk is very low.”

Inland Cardiology Associates bought the gamma scanner, which cost more than $100,000, Pavlic said. The group sends a technician from Spokane to Kellogg two days a week to read the scans. Mountain Health Care pays for the technician’s time and Inland Cardiology pays the clinic to rent space there, Pavlic said.

“We’re all in this together as a health system,” Shoshone Medical Center CEO Gary Moore said. “We’ve got to work together.”

Kootenai Medical Center has had a nuclear medicine department for at least 15 years, said Tom Legel, the hospital’s vice president of finance and information services.

But KMC isn’t worried about competition from the Silver Valley, Legel said.

“We may or may not lose some volume to those folks,” he said. “But it’s great they’re able to receive that type of care in their own community.”

This sidebar appeared with the story:

OPEN HOUSE

Tours on Saturday

The public can tour the new nuclear medicine department Saturday morning as part of Kellogg’s high-tech fair. The equipment is at Mountain Health Care, 740 McKinley Ave.