A new chief executive officer has been appointed at LewisGale Hospital Montgomery.

Alan Fabian, who started Jan. 2 at the Blacksburg hospital, most recently served as CEO of Dauterive Hospital in Louisiana, another HCA-owned facility.

Fabian has more than 20 years of experience in health care and is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

“We are excited to have him as part of the LewisGale family as he shares our commitment to high-quality, compassionate care,” Victor Giovanetti, president of Lewis Gale Regional Health System, said in prepared statement.

Fabian replaces Scott Hill, who left LewisGale Hospital Montgomery in September to become chief operations officer for Columbus Regional Healthcare System in Georgia.

Both Jefferson College of Health Sciences, in Roanoke, and the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Blacksburg, are set to unveil new spaces for their students and faculty. Each will celebrate their new environments Friday.

Jefferson College will officially mark its move to Carilion Roanoke Community Hospital. Over the summer the college moved out of its old spaces in the Reid Center and into newly renovated rooms next door inside the old hospital. The $8 million project includes gutting two floors and giving two other floors face-lifts, with new paint and other changes needed to convert former hospital patient rooms to office space.

VCOM’s Friday celebration is focused on a new clinic dedicated to academic sports and osteopathic medicine. This clinic is being split off from the existing Academic Primary Care Associates clinic located at Montgomery Regional Hospital, whose name recently changed to LewisGale Hospital-Montgomery. Read more »

Seeing a lot of pink lately? It’s to be expected. After all this is October, the month of mammograms and breast cancer awareness. We ran a story on the annual ‘Shout if from the Mountain Top’ event last week.  And now I’m told of an extra push to give uninsured women free mammograms.

Project Access, a Roanoke nonprofit that provides medical treatment for low income uninsured individuals, is hosting a free mammogram event today for 33 preregistered women.

Project Access Executive Director Kate Ellmann told me that the plan is to host at least one more of these events, and possibly two more. For now, she’s looking to get the word out to women who haven’t had a mammogram because they don’t have health insurance and can’t afford it on their own.

Project Access received a $42,700 grant from the local Susan G. Komen affiliate last year with a goal of screening 150 women. The grant was extended into this year so they could offer a few more screenings.

Others in the area also offer free mammograms. Carilion Clinic has this program and Lewis-Gale Medical Center works with Bradley Free Clinic to help arrange for free mammograms.

Even as many health professionals tout the benefits of early detection of breast cancer through mammography, there are others who question it. A nurse practitioner recently wrote in Health Affairs about why she doesn’t get the annual test. What are your thoughts?