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Denver program provides screenings to uninsured women.
In the greater Denver metropolitan area, an estimated 80,000 women over the age of 40 are uninsured. Because of financial, geographic or cultural barriers, these women do not always have access to critical services to detect and treat breast cancer. But as a result of a unique partnership between Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital (ESJH), the Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation and the Denver Metropolitan Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, this situation has been changing.
For the past six years, these three organizations have banded together to provide breast cancer detection and treatment to this underserved population. Once a woman was diagnosed with breast cancer, ESJH would take care of all of her clinical needs at one of their clinics, including performing lumpectomies, mastectomies, chemotherapy and radiation. While they have been able to address much of the need, leaders at ESJH realized that a large gap still existed. "It became clear to us that many of these individuals could not get to our facilities for a mammogram," says Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation president and CEO Carl Unrein. "We needed to find another way to provide access to this critical service."
Mobile Mammography Unit
The answer to their problem came in the form of a mobile mammography unit. "The program was specifically designed to be a continuation of ESJH's mission 'to foster healing and health for the people and communities we serve,'" notes Greg A. McKay, manager of the mobile mammography unit. "It is the goal of the program to remove barriers that are preventing women from receiving necessary screening mammograms. Early intervention is rightfully touted as integral to the successful treatment of breast cancer. The mobile mammography program provides the necessary resources to make early intervention a reality."
The program...