National charity brings 'lifesaving' ultrasound equipment to Cheyenne health clinics

Mar. 21—CHEYENNE — More than $13 million is coming into Wyoming, allowing clinics and health centers across the state to provide ultrasounds and diagnose patients in ways that were previously cost-prohibitive.

While the Wyoming Ultrasound Initiative is primarily aimed at rural parts of the state, the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Foundation and HealthWorks both received funding for new state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment.

HealthWorks CEO Tracy Brosius said the funds will go directly to helping underserved and uninsured people in Laramie County.

"Our clinic qualified for it because we serve a vulnerable and underserved population," Brosius said. "What's exciting for us is, (with) a lot of these patients ... it's kind of borderline, right? The provider would really like to know the next step, but, since we didn't have any ultrasound capacity here, we'd have to refer them out, and then hope the patient came back. (About 25%) of our patients are fully uninsured and so a lot of times they would just go without the care.

"Now, we're going to be able to do that in-clinic."

According to a news release, HealthWorks used the money to purchase a "MINDRAY TE X" machine, described as a portable ultrasound device. The device, which nurse practitioners at the clinic will be trained on within the month, will drastically improve patient care response time, the clinic said.

"The nice thing about the piece of equipment that we purchased is that our nurse practitioners will be trained on it so that they can do it with the patient," Brosius continued. "... We're hoping to add that position (a sonographer) to the clinic as we kind of get our feet under us, so that's super exciting."

The nearly $79,000 grant to HealthWorks was provided by the Helmsley Charitable Trust, which gave 30 grants to health clinics and hospitals across Wyoming, totaling more than $12 million. All of the grants are for ultrasound equipment. Another $1.5 million will go to the University of Wyoming to provide ultrasound training.

One of the largest single recipients of funding by the trust is the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Foundation, which received nearly $1.5 million for ultrasound equipment.

"The impact of this ultrasound technology will be seen in a multitude of different procedure and testing areas throughout our medical center," CRMC Administrator of Cardiac and Medical Imaging Casey Robinson said in a news release. "This new technology will significantly reduce pain levels typically experienced during some exams, reduce patient wait times and largely help prevent workplace injuries to our sonographers.

"The generosity of this grant allows us to bring technology to our patients and community that is second to none. We greatly appreciate our partnership with the Helmsley Foundation and their investment in our community's health."

Scott Fox, executive director of the CRMC Foundation, told the WTE that the grant will significantly upgrade the hospital's ultrasound technology, even in ways he didn't expect.

"It's largely going to help prevent workplace injuries to our sonographers," Fox told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. "That was something, when I learned about this, that was interesting to me; I never would have thought that. I could picture reducing wait times, because it makes sure that there's more point-of-care ultrasounds available. ... But, apparently some sonographers, the people that use the equipment day in and day out, can get workplace repetitive stress injuries."

The grant will update all of the hospital's imaging, he said, and remove the need for people being treated in a specific unit, like the Intensive Care Unit, to be transferred somewhere else for imaging.

"The grant allows us to replace the entire fleet of ultrasound machines in the medical imaging department," Fox continued. "We're blessed here in southeast Wyoming, at Cheyenne Regional, with a really generous group of supporters. People donate, from individuals to local organizations to, as you can see, in this case, a national private foundation."

The Helmsley Charitable Trust held a news conference Thursday morning, where health care administrators from across the state, including a University of Wyoming professor who will assist with the training portion of the grant, talked about the impact the ultrasound initiative will have on the rural parts of the state.

"We're located in the frontier areas of northern Wyoming and Montana, really beyond rural, where the antelope likely outnumber the humans and where patients deal with real barriers to accessing quality health care, because of the vast distances that so many have to travel to get to care," said David Mark, CEO of One Health, who described first coming to work with the people at the Helmsley Charitable Trust around 10 years ago. "The trust took a leap of faith to invest in our first foray into providing integrated behavioral health in our organization. That initial investment has grown a hundredfold and this service line now plays a central role in how we care for our communities.

"Gifts like the one that the Helmsley Charitable Trust is making today represent a real investment in our communities to remove these barriers to access and promote health equity in our philanthropically underserved parts of the country."

Samir Knox is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's criminal justice and public safety reporter. He can be reached by email at sknox@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3152. Follow him on Twitter at @bySamirKnox.