Sentara is one step closer to bringing PET/CT cancer screening to Woodbridge

WOODBRIDGE — Sentara officials won approval from the Health Systems Board of Northern Virginia for a PET/CT scanner at its Northern Virginia Medical center in Woodbridge.

The proposal now heads from the Northern Virginia Regional Commission to Richmond for a hearing in front of the state’s health commissioner on May 22.

A PET/CT (Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography) scanner is used to detect the early onset of cancer. A radioactive isotope, called a tracer, is injected into the body, and sugar inside the injection is absorbed by cancer cells, allowing the scanner to identify them.

The hospital says the new service would fill a community need, and notes that it would add to it would fit in with a larger cancer treatment network the hospital is developing. Hospital officials said Sentara is the only hospital in the state with more than 150 beds without PET/CT, and is the only healthcare system in Northern Virginia that does not currently offer the service.

They also argue that it can take patients more than the state-required minimum of an hour’s travel time to reach other PET/CT sites in Northern Virginia’s Planning District 8 which includes Fairfax and Prince William counties.

Novant UVA Health offers the service in Gainesville, while Mary Washington Healthcare offers it Fredericksburg, though that hospital is located in Planning District 16 and is overseen by the George Washington Regional Commission.

Metro Region PET/CT in Falls Church is the most vocal opponent to Sentara’s bid to win approval to implement the imaging technology at its Woodbridge facility. In a letter, it says the addition of the service in Woodbridge would have adverse effects on Metro Region’s business, meaning fewer customers would travel from Prince William County to Fairfax County for the service.

It also reminded the Health Systems Board that Sentara applied for PET/CT once before and was denied.

Sentara argues that it’s Woodbridge hospital has come a long way since then and is it closer to its goal of opening a new outpatient cancer screenings center that will include other imaging services like ultrasound, mammography, x-ray, and ultrasound.

Senatra estimates it will perform 230 to 250 PET/CT scans per year if it’s awarded the ability to host the service. The service will be provided inside a mobile trailer that will be parked on a concrete pad outside the Century Building at the medical center complex on Opitz Boulevard.

The Health Systems Agency Board unanimously approved the application. Prince William County has two representatives on the Board — Bob Pugh who attended the meeting and Steven Botello who was absent, according to the Board’s official meeting minutes.