Bassett Healthcare Network takes mammography and cancer-screening program on the road

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Bassett Healthcare Network announced it is traveling throughout its service area and adjacent counties with its mobile mammography and cancer-screening program.

The Bassett program is traveling in an RV-type coach, equipped with diagnostic technology, the organization said in a news release.

The program includes breast and cervical-cancer screening services for the population that Bassett serves. The coach is traveling throughout the network’s eight-county service region and adjacent counties.

Cancer care “must include” prevention and early-detection interventions to “significantly” improve outcomes for cancer patients in the region, Valerie Maddalone, family nurse practitioner who provides clinical services on the medical coach, said.

“This is the reason Bassett Healthcare Network developed this cancer screening outreach program, centered around a mobile medical coach so we could expand access to cancer screening and cancer-prevention education, thereby improving access to early detection and treatment and hopefully helping reduce cancer deaths,” she added.

The coach includes digital-mammography equipment. In addition, the coach’s self-contained technology and exam room enables staff to perform additional types of cancer screenings, including cervical-cancer screenings, Pap tests, and colorectal-cancer screenings It also provides educational materials for patients. No one is turned away “because of their inability to pay,” Bassett noted.

The medical coach travels to Bassett’s regional primary-care centers and other locations throughout the year to provide “convenient” mammography services, Christine Conkling, Bassett’s manager of community outreach, said in the release.

“We also work with the New York State Cancer Services Program to provide breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening services to the under and uninsured population at various special events each year. We want to prevent, as much as possible, the emotional and physical toll a cancer diagnosis can take on patients and their families. Toward that end, the medical coach is a valuable tool in our fight against this disease.”

Bassett cancer statistics

Since 2008, through the Bassett Cancer Institute’s cancer-screening program, providers have completed 11,044 mammograms, including 1,864 women who were uninsured/underinsured.

The program referred 803 women for follow-up care.

It provided 35 women with a breast-cancer diagnosis and recommendation for treatment.

The program also provided Pap/pelvic exams for 1,503 women, including 107 who were referred for additional care.

It diagnosed 10 women with cervical cancer and referred them for treatment.

In addition, the program provided 692 colorectal-screening kits to men and women (two years of data), and out of those, 77 individuals were referred for follow-up care.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com

Photo credit: Bassett Healthcare Network