Patients leaving the Miss-Lou for healthcare certainly shouldn’t be doing so because the needed equipment isn’t here, area medical officials say.

Five local medical facilities offer a full gamut of technology for the youngest patient to the oldest.

Riverland Medical Center Administrator Vernon Stevens said he wished patients in the area would take note of what is available at home before hitting the road.

“Equipment wise, I think in this area we pretty much have all the equipment,” Stevens said. “But in this area, we could probably keep more business.”

Some of the newest equipment to find home in the Miss-Lou has been the 64-slice CAT scan and the cardiac cath lab.

The 64-slice CAT scan at Natchez Regional Medical Center is able to take images of entire organs in the body in seconds. It provides faster scans, improved patient comfort and more accurate diagnosis, said Lana Morgan, senior vice president and chief operations officer.

The equipment is a relatively new advancement in the imaging world. It can be used to get a closer look at the heart, the spine, head or abdomen.

The Community Cath Lab — located at Riverpark Medical Center on the Vidalia Riverfront — offers state-of-the-art diagnostic and interventional coronary and peripheral procedures.

It was opened in 2007 as a partnership between Riverpark and Natchez Community Hospital.

But the medical services offered in the Miss-Lou don’t stop there, Riverpark Medical Director Dr. John White said.

“If you first look in the area of imaging, we have an MRI, which is used for total body scans,” White said. “We can scan anywhere in the body.

“We also have a CT scanner. We are very proud, as well, of our digital mammography machine. It gives much more clear images than traditional mammography machinery does.

“We have ultrasound that is also equipped with a probe that can do prostate evaluations on men. Surgically, we can do just about any outpatient surgical procedure, from gallbladder removal to a tonsillectomy.”

Many of the services at Riverpark are also available at the other area hospitals.

Some of the services Natchez Community Hospital offers include:

16-slice CT scanner

Echo cardiology

Industrial health and wellness services

Inspirations (outpatient psychotherapy)

Maternity services

Nuclear medicine

Physical therapy

Prostate seed implantations

Pulmonary rehabilitation

Sleep center

Specialized wound and hyperbaric medicine

Surgery

Ultrasound

Urology

Some services Natchez Regional Medical Center offers inlcude the following:

Cardiology

Cardiac rehabilitation

Chest pain center

Coronary care unit

Gastroenterology

Inpatient rehabilitation unit

Ultrasound

MRI

Level II neonatal intensive care

Nuclear medicine

Obstetrics

Occupational therapy

Oncology

Orthopedics/sports medicine

Outpatient surgery

Pediatric unit

PET scan services

Physical therapy

Pulmonary medicine

ENT Services

Radiology services

Bone density

Renal dialysis

Inpatient respiratory therapy

Mammography

Echo cardiography

And Riverland Medical Center in Ferriday offers a full range of services as well, Stevens said.

“We have a bone density scanner that we just got, and we have a new ultrasound machine,” he said. “Then we have your normal X-ray equipment and we have a CT scanner.

“We have laparoscopic surgery equipment, endoscopy equipment for scopes. We have mammography and PET scan.”

The newest addition to the Miss-Lou Medical Community is the new Promise Hospital building on the Vidalia Riverfront.

Promise has moved from its previous Ferriday facility to the larger building.

Promise is a long-term acute hospital. Patients there are referred from other doctors and hospitals.

Some services Promise offers are:

Cardiac Monitoring

Hemodynamic monitoring

Titrate pressure support medications

Ventilator weaning

Respiratory therapy and care

Total parenteral nutrition-TPN

Negative pressure wound therapy

Physical therapy

Occupational therapy

Radiology

All area hospitals offer additional services and have additional equipment.

Patients concerned about what care may be available should ask their primary care physician or contact the hospitals for more information.

“There’s no one better at taking care of local people than our local healthcare professionals,” Natchez Community Hospital CEO Tim Trottier said.