Improved Nuclear Medicine Services for Patients

Caldwell, ID – West Valley Medical Center, with the only nuclear medicine suite in Caldwell, now offers enhanced imaging technology utilizing the only GE Discovery 630 in Canyon County. Nuclear Medicine is used to assess the function of an organ system. The most common procedure at West Valley Medical Center is a stress test, done to look at blood flow to the heart muscle during both rest and stress. Other tests include: bone scans to locate cancer, fractures or other bone diseases; scans for gallbladder function; renal scans for kidney function; and gastric emptying scans to assess how fast or slow the stomach empties.

Benefits of West Valley Medical Center’s advanced nuclear medicine suite include:

• Shorter scan times for many procedures to minimize the amount of time needed for the procedure
• Improved imaging quality to aid physicians when reading the results
• Smaller doses of radiation on many scans for improved patient safety
• Restroom, changing area, and ceiling mounted TV for patient comfort
• 500 pound table weight limit to accommodate the needs of larger patients

Nuclear Medicine staff includes registered technologists with advanced registries in their areas of specialty. A large percentage of the technicians are graduates of the Radiologic Science Program at Boise State University, which is one of the leaders in radiologic science in the Northwest.