Vascular Lab Opens

Queen of the Valley Hospital has opened its new Vascular Interventional Laboratory, a suite of computerized imaging equipment that uses the latest technologies to help physicians diagnose problems in the vascular system and perform interventional procedures inside veins and arteries without surgery.

The equipment was purchased with $950,000 raised by the QVH Foundation in 1998-99. Major grants from the Napa Valley Vintners Association and the Gasser Foundation were supplemented with over $300,000 in smaller grants, individual gifts, and proceeds from the Foundation’s special events.

Red Tape

Why the delay between the time the money was raised and the opening of the new lab? The answer is that the hospital had to reconfigure space for the new equipment, and hospital construction is subject to an extraordinary amount of state regulation—far more than most other kinds of building.

“There are so many people who must review each step,” says QVH Project Manager Don Judah, who oversees construction at the hospital. “You could almost build a whole subdivision in the time it takes to go through the process we have to go through.”

Hospitals are subject to many special safety and building requirements, Don explains, and each stage of the construction process must be thoroughly reviewed by state authorities. Because so much red tape is involved, even minor delays can quickly snowball into major bottlenecks.

New Technology

The new vascular lab, which opened in May, uses digital imaging rather than x-ray film, as the hospital’s old vascular imaging system did. That means more detailed images with less risk and discomfort for patients.

“It’s a major improvement in our equipment,” says Dr. Daniel Bunnell, a radiologist at the Queen. “The Foundation’s support has enabled us to provide a level and scope of service that most other communities, even those three times our size, can only dream of.”