The Snoqualmie Valley has its first mammography services with a new imaging machine and mammography suite at the Snoqualmie Valley Health hospital.

This service will allow Snoqualmie Valley Health to give potentially life-saving breast cancer screenings at a time when there is a backlog of mammography appointments in the region, said radiologist Kara Carlson.

Not only does Snoqualmie Valley Health have appointments available soon, but Valley residents won’t have to travel so far to get their screenings, said CEO Renée Jensen.

“Getting access to early breast cancer detection is the most important thing,” she said. “And if we don’t have open appointments, or you have to travel too far … those breast cancers can go undetected.”

The hospital had a ribbon-cutting ceremony July 22. At the event, the Snoqualmie Valley Health Foundation presented Snoqualmie Valley Health leadership with a $290,000 check for funding of the mammography suite. The foundation raised $40,000 and received a $250,000 grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.

The 3D imaging machine is the “latest and greatest,” said Carlson, allowing the team to detect cancer even in dense breast tissue.

“The [machine] does this little sweep, and the patient doesn’t even know it, but we’re getting images at one millimeter-thick intervals through the breast tissue,” she said. “So it doesn’t matter how dense your breast tissue is, the mammogram is still essential.”

In her reports, Carlson will also be able to tell patients what their breast density is and calculate their lifetime risk of breast cancer.

Carlson is the medical director at RAYUS Radiology’s Issaquah Breast Center. She and the manager of Snoqualmie Valley Health’s imaging department, Steve Bradshaw, have known each other for more than 20 years. When it was time for Bradshaw to hire a radiologist, he “wanted to get her.”

“She’s really good about making sure that each and every patient has exactly what they need,” he said. “If anybody in my family needed to have breast care, I’d want them to go through Dr. Carlson.”

The team also includes Kathy Long, an experienced technician and the hospital’s mammographer.

Appointments for mammographies are now available and can be made through the MyChart patient portal or by calling 425-831-3521.

Snoqualmie Valley Health imaging manager Steve Bradshaw, CEO Renée Jensen and radiologist Kara Carlson cut the ribbon at the opening of the hospital’s mammography suite, July 22, 2025. (Grace Gorenflo/Valley Record)

The Snoqualmie Valley Health Foundation presents the hospital with a check for $290,000 to support the new mammography suite, July 22, 2025. (Grace Gorenflo/Valley Record)