area facilities found them a successful
candidate. A product of Hitachi, the
scanner is the second device SVMC has
purchased from the manufacturer. An
agreement between Hitachi and SVMC
provided superior MRI equipment with
lifetime upgrades at a very desirable
price, in exchange for SVMC serving as
a show site for the company. Hospital
personnel nationwide have traveled to
Star Valley to observe this equipment and
visit with SVMC staff, and this will be
true for the new CT scanner as well.
Emergency care in a rural setting can be
challenging, and interestingly enough,
SVMC’s emergency department upgrades
(the new emergency department opened
in April 2015) came before a particularly
busy trauma season. “We now have three
trauma bays and five private rooms,”
Johnson explains. “In 2014, between
May and September, which is our busier
time for trauma, we had nine serious
traumas. During the first six weeks of
2015, we had nine {traumas}, and at the
end of the season we had 32 within the
Valley.” Of its nearly 2000 ER visits in
2015, less than 3% had to be transferred
to another hospital.
As we all know, health care is not
inexpensive for anyone, patient or
provider. SVMC is a leader among its
peers in financial standing. The three-mill
levy provides approximately $525,000
per