Liz Bacom and Renee Hertless stand with Petersburg Medical Center’s new mammography machine. Photo/Angela Denning
Liz Bacom said the new mammography machine was a very good deal. She is the Lab and Imaging Manager for the medical center and said they paid just $37,000 for the machine. A new one would have cost about $180,000. This one had been used in Sitka for a few years.
Bacom said they first learned it was available in April and the board approved the purchase.
“[They were] all very enthusiastic about it, a hundred percent support,” said Bacom, “and after the board approved, the Beat the Odds committee came forward and said we’d like to donate $5,000 towards the purchase so they came in and helped us out and it was warp speed after that.”
The new mammography machine has been in operation in Petersburg for a little over a month now and it’s not just Bacom who is excited about it.
The medical center does 15 to 25 mammograms a month and the person conducting most of them is Renee Hertless. She’s a Radiologic Technologist and she told me that the new technology is making a big difference.
The maker of the mammography machine, Phillips, took the old machine as a trade and the company plans to send it to a third world country.
The Image Center’s open house happens Oct. 9 from 4 to 6 p.m. There is also a 2.5 mile Beat the Odds run-walk Saturday morning to help fund local cancer prevention efforts. The event starts at 9 a.m. at the community gym. Registration starts at 8 a.m.
