Starting next month, EEGs will be available here in Libby

St. John’s Lutheran Hospital will bring another service close to home for the people of South Lincoln County.  

Starting early next month, St. John’s has teamed up with Glacier Neurology to perform and interpret Electroencephalograms (EEGs) right here in Libby. 

An EEG is a test that measures and records the electrical energy of the brain.  

Special sensors attached to the patient’s scalp record activity within the brain; a trained technologist then records the waves for interpretation by a Neurologist.  

When patients have an EEG done at St. John’s, Glacier Neurology will perform the interpretations of the EEG recording and provide consultation for treatment to your local Primary Care Provider.  

In addition to diagnosing epilepsy, EEGs are used to check for problems with loss of consciousness or dementia, or to find other abnormalities of the brain, spinal cord, or nervous system.

In April, a group from the SJLH Respiratory Therapy Department was trained by Larry Head from the Larry Head Institute for Neuro Diagnostic Training.  

They learned the fundamentals of EEG testing including patient preparation, application, implementation, EEG pattern characteristics, and identification of both normal and abnormal wave forms.  

They also learned and practiced with the EEG monitoring instrument, different types of provocation and monitoring techniques, as well as the responses to those techniques.  

“We are bringing a very important service to Lincoln County that is typically only seen in neurology clinics and large hospitals,” stated Robert O’Rourke, RT, RPSGE with the Cardiopulmonary Department at St. John’s Lutheran Hospital.  

“Our local physicians and primary care doctors have seen a number of their patients struggle with traveling out of town to receive this test, and in several cases their patients have opted out of having the test performed all together.  This diagnostic test is too important to ignore, so we feel that we will be helping an extremely important and underserved patient group.”

For more information on EEG testing contact your primary care physician or the St. John’s Cardiopulmonary Department at 283-7191.