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It was a day to remember in Claremont on Thursday as the community came out to celebrate the grand opening of the new satellite wing of Pomona Valley Hospital. Located at the corner of Claremont Boulevard and Monte Vista Avenue, the new Pomona Valley Health Center was visited by several hundred residents, all interested in seeing first hand the state of the art equipment and services offered there. Visitors toured the 50,000 square foot building, where hospital staff explained the different wings and medical equipment available. The center is home to an Urgent Care facility, which is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends and holidays. Some of the services include a primary care practice run by 2 senior doctors from Pomona Valley Hospital, Dr. Duane W. Styles and Dr. Lester S. Holstein. Near the primary care office is a 1200 square foot meeting room, which will be used for both hospital purposes like Lamaze classes or for community groups to meet. The satellite wing boasts some state-of-the-art scanning equipment including a MRI machine and a CT scanner, ultrasounds, X-rays, mammograms and bone density equipment. The 3 Tesla MRI machine has twice the magnetic power of the main hospital's MRI, said Chris Aldworth, Vice President of the satellite division. "It is the latest and greatest cutting edge programming,” Mr. Aldworth said. "The type of images you can get out of this program is really quite amazing." All scanning equipment images and medical records at Pomona Valley Hospital's satellite offices are recorded digitally, meaning less paper and no dark room film development is needed. If a patient needs copies of images such as mammograms or CT scans, they are given a CD or the images can be sent to different doctor's offices electronically. "When you hear the federal government talk about trimming costs of health care and improve safety and quality, this is what we are already doing here," Mr. Aldworth said.
On the second floor of the facility, there is a physical therapy and a sleep disorder center that will open over the summer. The center will have 2 beds for children and a separate observation room for parents who can spend the night. After the open house, several hospital representatives and local city officials made statements to celebrate the grand opening as the crowd sipped on wine and snacked on refreshments. "In California especially, we struggle to provide a high level of care to people in need of medical attention," said State Senator Anthony Adams. "To have a center like this speaks volumes about the concerns of the communities to provide that need. To have this in Claremont, speaks volumes about the character of Claremont and those who represent it." Council members from Claremont, Upland, Pomona, La Verne and Rancho Cucamonga were in attendance. "We are so very happy to have this facility here that contributes so much to our community and offers so much in the way of service to our residents," Mayor Corey Calaycay said. Construction on the Pomona Valley Health Center began in February of 2008 and took just over a year to complete. There are 3 other satellite centers of Pomona Valley, located in Chino Hills and Pomona. —Tony Krickl |
