Coastal Diagnostic Center Designated Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by American College of Radiology

CENTRAL COAST, CA – February 19, 2018 – Dignity Health Central Coast’s Coastal Diagnostic Center, located in Pismo Beach, joins the Marian Breast Imaging Center at Mission Hope Cancer Center and San Luis Diagnostic Center as being designated a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology (ACR).

By awarding facilities the status of a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence, the ACR recognizes breast imaging centers that have earned accreditation in all of the College’s voluntary, breast-imaging accreditation programs and modules, in addition to the mandatory Mammography Accreditation Program.
The breast imaging services at this center are fully accredited in mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy, breast ultrasound and ultrasound-guided breast biopsy. Peer-review evaluations, conducted in each breast imaging modality by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field, have determined that this facility has achieved high practice standards in image quality, personnel qualifications, facility equipment, quality control procedures, and quality assurance programs.

“Our Dignity Health Breast Imaging Centers on the Central Coast are at the forefront of breast cancer screening and testing, offering the latest in imaging technology and care for our patients and communities,” says Vickie Berry, Director, Imaging Services. “Dignity Health’s Coastal Diagnostic Center is pleased to be recognized among the most distinguished imaging centers with this recent designation.” 

Each imaging facility, all dignity health entities, offers advanced, state of the art, three-dimensional imaging capabilities, including tomosynthesis, a three-dimensional imaging technology that uses a low-dose short X-ray sweep around the compressed breast. It delivers high quality digital imagery at low dose that delivers greater accuracy in finding size, shape, and location of any breast irregularities.

The ACR, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, is a national organization serving more than 32,000 diagnostic/interventional radiologists, radiation oncologists, nuclear medicine physicians, and medical physicists with programs for focusing on the practice of medical imaging and radiation oncology, as well as the delivery of comprehensive health care services.
 
About Dignity Health
Dignity Health, one of the nation’s largest health care systems, is a 22-state network of more than 9,000 physicians, 63,000 employees, and 400 care centers, including hospitals, urgent and occupational care, imaging and surgery centers, home health, and primary care clinics. Headquartered in San Francisco, Dignity Health is dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality, and affordable patient-centered care with special attention to the poor and underserved.  In FY17, Dignity Health provided $2.6 billion in charitable care and community services. For more information, please visit our website at www.dignityhealth.org. 

About Dignity Health Central Coast 
Dignity Health Central Coast is comprised of five award-winning hospitals, all recognized for their quality of care, safety and service, primary care offices, premier ambulatory surgery centers, technologically advanced imaging centers, outpatient services, and comprehensive home health services. Hospitals in the Dignity Health Central Coast region include Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in Arroyo Grande, French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo, and St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. Each hospital is supported by an active philanthropic Foundation to provide additional funding to support new programs and services, as well as to advance the community’s access to health care. For more information, visit dignityhealth.org/centralcoast.