Summit Surgery Center at Saint Mary’s Galena to launch new Breast Center

The Summit Surgery Center in Saint Mary’s Galena is implementing a new Breast Center to make preventative care, screening and treatment for breast cancer patients more convenient by offering all of these services in one location.

“Having them come here will allow them to do most things start to finish,” said Michelle Mays, executive director of Summit Surgery Center. They will be able to do everything from screening, mammograms, on-site radiology, pathology and everything else leading up to surgery, she added.

Mays explained that in many facilities the process is very cumbersome for the patient. They typically have to navigate through different buildings for the various procedures and check in to each location. It also can be a long process that takes days to complete. Summit Surgery Center’s Breast Center provides all of the procedures under the same roof with only one check-in location. The center will provide more privacy and convenience for the patients.

“It streamlines it and that makes it really nice for the patient because it is a stressful time when you are dealing with possibly a diagnosis of breast cancer,” said Nancy Dibble, the director of nursing at Summit Surgery Center.

Dibble is the inspiration behind the new center. She had experienced a similar setup while working at a facility in southern California and wanted to bring the model to northern Nevada.

The Summit Surgery Center will start seeing patients in the new Breast Center by the beginning of June.

The Breast Center is a joint venture between Summit Surgery Center, Saint Mary’s, Reno Tahoe Anesthesia, Radiology Consultants LTD and Aurora Diagnostics Western Pathology. The center will have Stanford Fellowship trained breast radiologist specialists doing the procedures and will also offers innovations such as pec blocks, which help to reduce the pain of breast cancer patients. Mays said that this is not currently done anywhere else in the community.

The facility had to get a radioactive material license through the state, renovate an area for radioactive material and buy additional equipment to implement the center.

The Summit Surgery Center currently has 34 staff members. They did not need to hire any additional staff to implement the Breast Center but Mays said there is the possibility to bring on additional staff as the program evolves.

“We are staffed for it,” Mays said. “We will see how it grows but we are not opposed to adding more staff if we need to.”

As more people move to the region, it is important to offer these types of services in the region, officials said.

“People are moving from areas where there are these expectations and these centers,”said Dr. Shelli Tiller, medical director for Summit Surgery Center and president of Reno Tahoe Anesthesia. “They will go back to those areas for treatment rather than keeping it local (if these types of services are not provided). People will go to Stanford or Davis for services that we are completely capable of providing here.”

Summit Surgery Center, 18653 Wedge Parkway, will host an open house on Thursday, June 8, from noon to 6 p.m. The event is open to the public and will allow people to tour the facility and learn more about the services offered at the center. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at noon.

“We are going to have the campus open with food and drinks and there will be some community leaders here,” Mays said.

For more information about Summit Surgery Center, visit http://www.summit galena.org.