Our Own Medical Director of Our Manhattan Beach Imaging and Interventional Center, Dr. Cheryl Hoffman, interviewed by The Beach Reporter
03/01/2012
UCLA Health System's Manhattan Beach Imaging and Interventional Center opened more than two years ago on Sepulveda Boulevard to give patients in the South Bay convenient access to good patient care, according to radiologist Dr. Cheryl Hoffman.
Hoffman, who is also the facilities medical director, makes Manhattan Beach her home. She spends three days a week in the Manhattan Beach office and makes the trip to other UCLA Health Systems facilities in Westwood and Santa Monica one day a week. Other physicians, including musculoskeletal radiologists and neuroradiologists, also make the commute to the Manhattan Beach campus on a regular basis.
"Our PACS system, which is how we take images, are transmitted throughout the Santa Monica, Westwood and Manhattan Beach campuses, so images could be read everywhere and some specialty care can be rendered," Hoffman said. "There's a lot of communication between the hospitals, the adjacent clinics in Westwood and Santa Monica and this facility."
The Manhattan Beach facility offers interventional procedures, specializing in varied ailments like vein care, uterine fibroids, sports injuries, back fractures, and cancer or vascular disease. Through its state-of-the-art imaging equipment — including the 3 Tesla MRI (which Hoffman calls the Gucci of MRIs), CT, X-rays and ultrasound — the radiologists are able to use non-invasive or minimally invasive procedures in the outpatient setting.
"Some procedures of course are more sophisticated and really require hospital setting so we can see patients here in the Manhattan Beach location before we do the procedure and after we do the procedure, but we'll do the procedure at the hospital base setting in Santa Monica or Westwood," said Hoffman, who specializes in interventional procedures from vein disease to back fractures and fibroids. "This provides an outreach so our South Bay patients don't have to commute for their follow-up care or before care."
Since the Manhattan Beach facility opened more than two years ago, the volume of patients has tripled, according to Hoffman. This growth phase will likely continue when they expand to breast imaging, including mammography, this summer.
Hoffman, who has a Medical Board certification in vascular and interventional radiology, diagnostic radiology and phlebology (vein care), was in private practice for 10 years before joining UCLA six years ago. She moved to the community in 1997, and has twin daughters, Danielle and Erica Wegner, who are freshmen with dance and musical theater ambitions at Mira Costa High School.
Hoffman said it is the goal of the facility to address the community's needs. As part of this outreach, Hoffman and other physicals offer lectures to the community if requested. They also see patients directly, without referrals.
"We love physician referrals, but if patients have a problem that we could address directly, they don't need a referral," she said. "So they can come either way ... oftentimes people think radiology center, you need a note from your doctor to come get an x-ray, but it's a very important point that we do procedures and we see patients and we run our own clinics."
The center is located at 2200 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
To schedule an appointment, call (310) 802-0200.
