Meet Sonography Program Director Joy Guthrie and former student Lorenzo Luna on this episode of MedWatch Today.
Community Health System’s sonography team has received reaccreditation from the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, a “gold standard” organization dedicated to improving patient care through the standardization of diagnostic imaging.
Community’s sonography team submitted case studies to the commission demonstrating high quality and safety standards — a process Sonography Program Director Joy Guthrie described as “rigorous.” To earn this accreditation, labs must show they can:
- Perform high-quality ultrasounds
- Maintain safe, well-calibrated equipment
- Follow strict protocols and quality checks
- Employ highly trained medical staff
This national seal of excellence confirms our sonographers' strong commitment to safe, high-quality heart care.
Community is home to the first advanced cardiac sonography program in the U.S.
Sonographers take live images within the human body called ultrasounds. They play a key role in helping doctors diagnose and monitor patients with heart and vascular diseases, such as diabetes.
Through its two sonography programs, Community has been training these specialists since 2011. In fact, our advanced cardiac sonography program was the first of its kind in the nation — training experienced sonographers from across the country to practice at an even higher level.
Participants spend 18 months training in an intensive program, completing nearly 1,700 clinical hours before graduating. One of those former students, Lorenzo Luna, said the advice he received from Guthrie stayed with him long after graduation.
“One thing that Joy really tells us to understand is that we’re not photographers,” he said. “We have to think like clinicians, because we’re the first ones that are there.”
New vascular lab to open in downtown Fresno
It’s thanks to the success of Guthrie and her students that the sonography program received its reaccreditation, which comes as Community is launching a new vascular lab in the North Medical Plaza on the Community Regional Medical Center campus in downtown Fresno.
Guthrie said the expanded services the lab provides will help identify vascular disease, circulation problems, and stroke-related conditions faster — before complications happen. It’s part of Community’s commitment to providing value-based care, something President & CEO, Craig Wagoner, is passionate about in his vision for the future, The Cause.
“Value-based care is saying, ‘Let's see very early on if this patient needs a small intervention,’” said Guthrie. “We find it early and fix it so they don't end up with a debilitating disease, and they stay out of the hospital unless it's something that's really urgent.”
For Guthrie, watching her former students become colleagues never gets old. Now an advanced cardiac sonographer, Luna credits the training he received for shaping the career he loves.
“I think the best part of my job as a sonographer that does continuous cardiac exams for a lot of people is that I get to take that journey with them,” he said. “It means the world to me. I love doing it.”
