Incline Village Community Hospital to Add Mammography Services Thanks to Charitable Gift from the Helmsley Charitable Trust

Tahoe Forest Health System is proud to announce that the Incline Village Community Hospital Foundation was awarded a $1.9mm grant by the Helmsley Charitable Trust to support 3D Mammography equipment for Incline Village Community Hospital. This grant will cover the cost of the equipment as well as the renovation expenses associated with providing this new service line at IVCH.

Walter Panzirer, a Trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said this grant will help improve access to essential breast cancer screening closer to home and provide earlier breast cancer detection.

“Long travel times to a facility offering mammography greatly limits access to breast cancer screening, particularly for women living in rural areas like Incline Village,” Panzirer said. “This grant will increase access to mammography breast cancer screening, which improves early detection of breast cancer and increases survival rates.”

The TFHS Diagnostic Imaging department identified that there are approximately 4,400 females between the ages of 40-100 who live in Incline Village, NV, and qualify for mammography screening services. Currently, accessing this care requires driving between 25-40 miles. This lifesaving gift will ensure access to high quality healthcare close to home.

“We are very excited and grateful to be receiving the largest charitable gift ever to be made to our Northern Nevada hospital from the Helmsley Charitable Trust,” says Harry Weis, President and CEO of Tahoe Forest Health System. “This gift gives us the opportunity to improve our healthcare delivery while being able detect and treat breast cancer at earlier stages, with the same state-of-the-art technology typically found in urban centers. We are thrilled to offer this service for our Incline Village and North Lake Tahoe communities,” he added.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust recently added Nevada as the eighth state in its Rural Healthcare Program, providing grants to help 10 Nevada hospitals purchase state-of-the-art diagnostic and radiology equipment. In the last decade, The Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program has awarded more than $600 million to organizations and initiatives aimed at improving healthcare for rural patients. For more information on the grant efforts of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.