Health
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- Written by: Susan Stout
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Family Nurse Practitioner Christine Dalva is the newest member of Dr. Paula Dhanda’s health care team at Specialty Care & Surgery Center at 5685 Main St. in Kelseyville, bringing a passion for “empowering and educating women” to improve their health.
Dalva, who specializes in gynecology and dermatology, began seeing patients at Specialty Care & Surgery Center in September last year.
She provides a wide range of services, including breast, pelvic, and skin exams, family planning, acne treatments, and removal of moles and skin lesions.
She is accepting new patients. To make an appointment, call the center at 707-279-8733.
“I am excited to bring Christine into our practice to care for our existing and new patients,” said Dr. Dhanda. “I know the women we treat are going to love Christine’s compassionate approach to care. She is thorough, thoughtful, competent and knowledgeable. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and she is a great asset to our team.”
“The Specialty Care & Surgery Center allows me to treat women holistically, which I find to be the most satisfying way to practice medicine,” said Dalva. “I always envisioned working in women’s health. Treating women has more impact on community health than treating any other population,” she explains. “Women are largely responsible for the health of the family, so empowering and educating women means that I am also able to help the children, husbands and friends of my patients.”
No stranger to Lake County, Dalva recently joined the practice to help complement the services provided by Dr. Dhanda after Physician’s Assistant Quincy Andrus announced her retirement. Andrus had worked with the doctor since 1999.
While studying to be a nurse practitioner, Dalva trained with Dhanda and Andrus at the Specialty Care & Surgery Center. Dhanda’s reputation as a health care provider, along with her philanthropic endeavors, appealed to Dalva.
“Training with the two of them made me feel that working with them would be an exceptional fit for my life and career goals,” Dalva said.
"I have trained many health care professionals in my local practice and around the world,” said Dhanda. “Christine was an outstanding student with a great fund of knowledge, a passion for learning and a very kindhearted manner in caring for women."
Dalva brings her dedication for helping people and connecting with them. “My family in Clearlake instilled in me a desire to help others,” she said, explaining that her grandmother ran the BirthRight Center in Clearlake for a number of years.
Her father, Bob Besgrove, worked as a school resource officer in Lake County. A former Clearlake Police Department officer, he started a program in which he delivered teddy bears to children at Redbud Hospital.
“I was brought up to find purpose and value in giving back and taking care of people. So medicine, with the challenges of biology and chemistry, linked with the opportunity to help people in their most vulnerable state, really appealed to me,” said Dalva. “Connecting with patients and helping them to be more well – in body and mind – has been the best part of my career.”
The practitioner’s path toward her new position in Kelseyville has spanned 17 years in the medical field.
A 2001 graduate of Redwood High School in the Bay Area, Dalva earned her bachelor of science degree in biochemistry at Holy Names University in 2005.
She worked as a medical assistant in ophthalmology and otolaryngology then dermatology while applying to medical schools.
She later pursued her registered nurse and nurse practitioner degrees at Samuel Merritt University, Oakland, obtaining her bachelor of science degree in nursing in 2012.
Two years later, after working as a circulating registered nurse in a head-and-neck and cosmetic surgery center as well as an outpatient dermatology clinic, she earned her Master's of Science degree to become a family nurse practitioner.
Dalva loves teaching health maintenance and disease prevention, and she encourages her patients to participate in their care. “I love working on preventive health and empowering people to live well and make well-informed choices,” she said.
While working as a student nurse in the intensive care unit of a hospital, she realized the importance of health maintenance and preventive care. Besides the trauma patients, there were many being treated for exacerbations of diseases that could have been avoided.
“They ended up acutely ill when, if they had made changes to their health, diet, and lifestyle practices earlier on, they could have lived better and avoided later complications,” she said. “I concluded that working in primary care and focusing on prevention seemed like the best place to be to effect change.”
Dalva’s training for her nursing degree included stints at several Bay Area hospitals (Children’s Hospital and Kaiser in Oakland, as well as Alta Bates in Berkeley). For completion of her nurse practitioner degree, she trained in a low income clinic in Richmond.
She also worked in a transgender clinic in the East Bay AIDS Center in Oakland. The individuals there are “some of the strongest and most perseverant souls I have had the privilege to meet,” said Dalva. “I loved taking care of them. I learned so much from them.”
Dalva shares Dr. Dhanda's passion for improving community health on a global scale and has helped lead medical missions to Ghana and Myanmar.
“I chose to move here specifically to work with Dr. Dhanda because I believe in her mission,” Dalva said. “She is changing the world with what she is doing. I love the medical missions I have done – so much planning and hard work, but so worth it because we can help so many people.”
She added, “With her Worldwide Healing Hands organization, Dr. Dhanda is changing entire regions in vulnerable, high-need areas around the world. She also has a vision for this community that I want to be a part of. I especially want to give women reproductive freedom, to allow them to choose when and how they get pregnant.”
Dalva recently relocated from the Bay Area along with her husband, a jewelry and metal arts instructor at the California College of Arts, and their 18-month-old daughter.
“My mom and siblings all live here in Lake County, and it is wonderful being closer to them,” said Dalva, who lived in the Clearlake and Lower Lake areas until she was 10 years old.
During her years as a teen, she alternated residences in Clearlake and Bay Area cities, attending Lower Lake High School for awhile and taking classes at Yuba College while she was a high school junior.
“I always envisioned coming back to help the community because of my connection with family and because my heart is here. This area is full of opportunity,” she said.
For more information about Specialty Care & Surgery Center, www.drspecialtycare.com or call 707-279-8733.
For information about Worldwide Healing Hands, visit www.worldwidehealinghands.org and on Facebook.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – It’s not often you walk into a doctor’s office to find a party with cupcakes, sparkling beverages and an atmosphere of celebration.
That has been the case every Friday at the St. Helena Family Health Center-Clearlake during the month of January.
Tracy Hazelton, FNP, and the team at the clinic on Lakeshore Drive are passionate about educating women on the importance of pap screening exams.
In honor of Cervical Health Awareness Month and all women who get a pap screening tests, they have thrown a party every Friday this month.
“The feedback from patients has been great,” Hazelton said. “The patients loved the treats and are glad they came in. It’s been a real feel-good experience.”
For Hazelton, the parties are about more than cupcakes and sparkling beverages. She sees them as a celebration of good health.
Her passion for cervical health awareness comes from a personal connection. Her cousin died at age 35 from metastatic cervical cancer, leaving behind three children.
Hazelton shares the story with women to encourage them to get a screening. “When cervical cancer is found early, in most cases, it can be treated very effectively,” she said.
Pap tests are proven to be the best tool to detect precancerous conditions and cell changes that may lead to cervical cancer and are recommended every three years for most women.
Women needing a pap test are invited to schedule an appointment. Call the St. Helena Family Health Center-Clearlake at 707-995-1362. Pap tests also can be scheduled through your primary care provider.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake announced the arrival of 3D mammography at its new Medical Imaging location at 15322 Lakeshore Drive, Suite 204 in Clearlake.
The conversion from 2D to 3D mammography will transform the process of breast cancer screening for women in Lake County.
St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake is proud to be one of only a few health care centers in the region offering this new and cutting-edge technology.
The 3D mammography technology, also known as digital breast tomosynthesis or DBT, dramatically increases breast cancer detection rates, especially in women with dense breast tissue.
St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake’s new Hologic Selenia Dimensions mammography system takes multiple pictures of each breast from many angles, though the scan takes less than four seconds.
The scan gives radiologists clear, highly focused images of the breast tissue, layer by layer, and achieves greater accuracy in pinpointing the size, shape and location of tumors.
Studies show that 3D mammography results in a 29-percent increase in detection of all breast cancers, and a 41-percent increase in detection of invasive breast cancers.
“Three-dimensional mammography screenings are the best defense for early detection of breast cancer,” said Amber Thompson, director of Medical Imaging at St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake. “It will provide us with more precise images to detect cancer earlier and with pinpoint accuracy. If patients are diagnosed earlier, they can be treated earlier.”
St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake’s medical imaging services at the Lakeshore Drive location will also include DEXA scanning, which was previously offered at the hospital itself.
DEXA scans measure bone density and detect risk for broken bones for people with multiple conditions, including osteoporosis.
“Our goal is to help keep residents of Lake County healthy, and the investment in the 3D mammography unit significantly furthers that objective,” explained David Santos, president and chief executive officer of St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake.
The hospital anticipates final licensure of the Imaging Services location within a few weeks, and will begin providing the new service immediately once awarded clearance to open.
Thompson looks forward to providing 3D mammography screenings. “I hope the women of Lake County will rest easier knowing they have access to the best cancer screening technology available, right here close to home.”
Medical imaging services are typically covered by Medi-Cal and Medicare and most major insurance plans.
The St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake’s Medical Imaging is located in the Hilltop Professional Building in Clearlake at 15322 Lakeshore Drive, Suite 204.
Call 707-995-5760 for more information.
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UKIAH, Calif. – To encourage Ukiah’s next generation of care providers, MCHC Health Centers donated $500 to purchase gear for members of Ukiah High School’s scrubs club so they can be easily identified when they volunteer as first responders in the community.
The UHS scrubs club provides instruction to students interested in health, medicine and allied fields such as fire and emergency medical response.
“Encouraging students to explore their interest in medicine and EMS is good for them, as well as the future of our community,” MCHC Health Centers Associate Medical Director Justin Ebert explained. “The main focus of scrubs, I believe, is from the standpoint of first responders. Some members are junior firefighters with local fire agencies; others volunteer at school sporting events.”
Ebert believes that with this type of experience, students will be better equipped to make decisions about their futures, potentially becoming nurses, doctors, fire fighters, paramedics or other health-related professionals.
Ideally, many will return to Ukiah after completing their education and training to care for people in this community.
UHS scrubs instructor Ben O'Neil has extensive experience in the emergency response field and is helping students who are interested prepare to sit for the national emergency medical technician certification exam upon high school graduation.
O’Neil has also partnered with Mendocino College to help students continue their medical education, and is developing a medical Spanish program.
Ebert supports training local students for local jobs. Like many Mendocino County health care organizations, MCHC Health Centers spends a lot of time and energy trying to recruit enough medical providers, and with national shortages in many medical fields, it is advantageous to grow our own when possible.
In its medical department, MCHC Health Centers employs doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, nurses, and medical assistants.
In its dental department, it employs dentists, dental hygienists, registered dental assistants, and sterilization techs. And in its behavioral health department, MCHC Health Centers employs licensed clinical social workers, nurse practitioners, psychologists and others.
“We love hiring local people because they are generally invested in this community and tend to stay here,” Ebert said.
MCHC Health Centers provides comprehensive health services including primary medical care, pediatrics, dentistry, women’s health, obstetrical care, counseling, psychiatry, chiropractic and specialty care, and looks forward to growing to meet the ever-expanding needs of the communities it serves.
Learn more at www.mchcinc.org .