(Clarkston, WA) On June 26, 2024, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell visited local leaders at TriState Health to take a tour of the hospital and the new equipment purchased as part of the TriState Health Imaging Project, which helps the hospital deliver medical imaging services to patients in Clarkston and Lewiston.
Senator Cantwell helped secure $2.5 million for the project as a Congressionally Directed Spending request for Fiscal Year 2023. The funding aided in the hospital’s purchase of two new CT scanners and an MRI machine – following a broader $39 million expansion of the hospital.
“We need to do everything we can to help women get testing and diagnostics early. With the advent of better technology and software, there are ways that they can detect and see more clearly earlier,” said Sen. Cantwell. “We want people to have the state-of-the-art facility and the kind of scanning that can come from those facilities.”
CT scans are used to diagnose the cause of strokes, the extent of other soft tissue damage found in serious head injuries, some types of tumors, and abnormal blood vessels. Before this project, TriState had one CT scanner that was over 15 years old and rapidly approaching its end of functional use, and an average of five patients were turned away per week due to limited availability of the single CT scanner.
MRI machines are used to help diagnose problems with tumors, liver disease, pancreas abnormalities, inflammatory bowel disease, and heart problems associated with congenital heart disease. The MRI in use at TriState before this project was purchased in 2006 and also nearing its end of life.
