You can also get a heart scan at CVI Medical Group. See their website at http://ct.heartscan.googlepages.com for a detailed explanation of what it is like to have such a scan.

Woohoo! Finally, after all these years, that prime chunk of real estate is being put to good use!

I would be very sceptical of any recommendation to get a heart scan from either Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) or Camino Medical Group (CMG), as they each have a huge financial incentive to have patients get the scans, whether they need it or not. Study after study shows that physicians with a financial interest in labs, MRI or CT Scanners, or Surgery Centers tend to over prescribe these services to their patients, and many are done for no medical reason whatsoever. There are laws to prevent this, but apparently both CMG and CVI have found ways around them. Chairman of the El Camino Hospital District Board David Reeder also questioned Board Member Ed Bough, MD over his conflict of interest with the hospital and his own heart scanner at CVI. In my opinion, David Reeder would never have a heart scan at CVI. I would recommend to all patients in the District to follow his lead, and at least get a second opinion if your physician at CVI or CMG recommends a heart scan. There is only one reason CVI and CMG got their own heart scanners to compete with the heart scanner at El Camino Hospital and that is GREED! Patients in the El Camino Hospital District do not need three heart scanners within blocks of each other.

The new CT Heart Scan is a test of questionable value, which is currently labeled "experimental" by many insurance companies. The only reason they are being promoted by the likes of CVI Medical Group is because of the huge profitability. If your doctor wants to do a CT Heart Scan "just to be sure nothing is wrong," I would ask if he would still recommend the procedure if you have it done at the El Camino Hospital scanner, where he doesn't have a financial interest. If he gets mad, then you know the answer! Find another cardiologist.

If you absolutely must have a CT Heart Scan, then I recommend going to El Camino Hospital and use their new scanner. As El Camino Hospital District Residents, we have already had our taxes increased by $300 million to pay for the updated hospital, and we are on the hook for hundreds of millions more with the bonds being sold by the hospital. It is appalling that Ed Bough, MD, former Chairperson of the El Camino Hospital District Board, has gone in to direct competition with the hospital by buying his own CT Scanner for his group, CVI. His actions display a profound lack of fiduciary responsibility to the Hospital District. Why the other Board members let him get away with it and allowed him to remain on the Board making financial decisions goes beyond the pale. They should all be ashamed of themselves.

Although El Camino Hospital has a CT scanner, they do not perform or schedule CT heart scans. I know because I have called them.

From Mountain View Voice, March 10, 2006

" Tensions rose once again last week on the Board of Directors, when vice chair David Reeder suggested that board chair Edward Bough's purchase of a high-tech medical device amounted to conflict of interest.

The issue began when Reeder delivered a PowerPoint presentation on a potential conflict of interest involving the purchase of two new, advanced 64-slice CT scanners by both El Camino Hospital and board chair Edward Bough's cardiology group, CVI Medical Group -- the implication being that Bough is competing with the hospital he represents, and should have disclosed his purchase earlier.

Several hours and snipes later, it resolved itself with the board deciding to develop a clearer conflict-of-interest policy.

"I do believe that a physician board member should not compete with a hospital in a major way and I think the scanner was a major way," Reeder said after the meeting.

Since the issue involved the board chair, vice chair Reeder followed the board's conflict of interest policy and began researching the potential conflict last October, after Bough disclosed CVI's plans to buy a Siemens 64-slice CT scanner. At the November meeting, the board approved a $341,000 upgrade to El Camino's 16-slice CT scanner under the hospital's 10-year contract with Siemens. Bough had recused himself from this vote, but Reeder believed he didn't disclose the conflict early enough.

A 64-slice CT scanner is a new imaging technology that can scan patients faster and at higher resolutions. The advantages include better visualization of coronary arteries, which would improve diagnoses of heart disease and other ailments. "

Maybe the Hospital is giving all the business to Board Member Bough!