Previously, the hospital offered GI services only through partnerships with other state facilities, but the need for services locally increased as more patients sought routine colonoscopies.
Since opening, the facility has completed an estimated 500 procedures. The department is staffed by one gastroenterologist and a medical assistant but is recruiting a nurse practitioner or physician assistant.
The department offers consultations, colonoscopies, upper endoscopies, small bowel endoscopies and testing for small bowel bacterial overgrowth and H. pylori. In July or August, the department hopes to add small bowel capsule endoscopies.
