Women’s Health Through the Ages

Alta Bates Summit tailors its expert care
and services to fit the particular health
care needs of women

Artist Jessel Miller created images of women’s life stages, expressly for display at Alta Bates Summit.

For every stage of life, Alta Bates Summit Medical Center provides women with top-notch medical treatment through our various Centers of Excellence — Women and Infants, Cardiovascular, Oncology, Orthopedic, and Behavioral Health. Here’s an overview of a few of the hallmarks in care.

Changes: The Wonder Years

“The first time a woman gets distinguished from a man for her health care needs is in adolescence,” says Katarina Lannér-Cusin, M.D., medical director of Women’s Services. “Her body starts to change, and so does her outer life.” During adolescence, social pressures ramp up, and girls can become prone to eating disorders. Alta Bates Summit’s Behavioral Health Center of Excellence offers the East Bay’s only full-spectrum eating disorder program, called Hope at Herrick, which provides an array of recovery services, including psychiatric consultations, nutrition therapy, and support groups.

Also at this stage of life, many girls become more active in sports, perhaps competing on their high school soccer or basketball team. If a young woman gets injured — knee ailments, particularly to the anterior cruciate ligament, are common — she can turn to Alta Bates Summit’s Orthopedic Center of Excellence, one of the largest orthopedic service centers in the East Bay, offering everything from minimally invasive surgery to comprehensive rehabilitation.

Choices: Forging Into Adulthood

If a woman decides to start a family, she can count on skilled, personalized care offered by the Women and Infants Center of Excellence. “We have many well-qualified OB/GYNs, so it’s easy for a woman to find a physician who works well for her,” says Katie Rose, R.N., administrative director of Women and Infants Services. The hospital also offers a prenatal lecture series.

At delivery time, moms-to-be are in expert hands at Alta Bates Summit. “Physicians, nurses, and anesthesiologists are available in-house, 24 hours a day, in case there’s any kind of problem,” Katie says. About 8,000 babies are born at Alta Bates Summit each year, so the team draws on a wealth of experience. Another benefit: Virtually every new mom gets a private room, with family time encouraged.

Because some pregnancies have complications, an antepartum unit is available for expectant moms who need to be admitted to the hospital early. And for babies who are premature or need extra care, Alta Bates Summit has an extraordinary newborn intensive care unit, staffed by a skilled and experienced team of neonatologists, neonatal nurses, respiratory therapists, social workers, and audiologists.

Leading our women’s health team: Katie Rose, R.N. (left), and Katarina Lannér-Cusin, M.D.

Prime Time: Middle-Age Adjustments

Alta Bates Summit’s goal is to provide women with the best possible medical care for conditions ranging from cancer to heart disease and beyond. In March, the hospital opened the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center. The state-of-the-art facility is designed to be the East Bay’s pre-eminent breast care center, with a team of radiologists who specialize in breast imaging, as well as breast surgeons and pathologists who work together to devise treatment plans using the latest therapies.

And before the end of 2008, Alta Bates Summit will open a new women’s center in Lafayette offering a range of specialty services, from mammography to urodynamics (pelvic floor health).

Whatever a woman’s needs, the staff at Alta Bates Summit is committed to offering the most effective but least invasive procedure. “We can perform fewer hysterectomies because we offer alternative techniques,” explains Risa Kagan, M.D., an OB/GYN at Alta Bates Summit. “We are well-trained in laparoscopy and hysteroscopy. So if a woman has menorrhagia [heavy periods] in midlife, for example, we can treat it with the newest hysteroscopic procedures and other alternatives so she doesn’t have to have a hysterectomy.”

As a woman enters menopause, her body is once again changing, and getting reliable advice is crucial. For this reason, Alta Bates Summit offers a lecture series on issues relevant to menopause
from hormone therapy and female libido to osteoporosis.

Living Well : Maximizing Senior Years

Alta Bates Summit helps mature women avoid illness by offering cardiovascular health and cancer screenings, bone densitometry (osteoporosis testing), and other such services.

Women with cardiovascular disease — which can present with different symptoms than in men — get advanced treatment, including minimally invasive heart surgery, offered by the hospital’s renowned Cardiovascular Center of Excellence. The center is staffed by a team of board-certified cardiologists and cardiac surgeons, vascular physicians, nurses, and therapists.

Alta Bates Summit’s Oncology Center of Excellence provides exceptional care for gynecologic cancers, with a surgical gynecological oncologist on staff. A gynecological oncologist can extract lymph nodes to gauge the spread of the disease, which is extremely important in guiding treatment.

At any age and every stage, Alta Bates Summit provides women with expert advice and advanced treatment. “We have a lot of options and programs for women,” says Katie, “and we look at health care from the perspective of how we’d want to be treated ourselves.”