Athens Regional Medical Center

ARMC unveils mobile unit to provide mammograms

By Don Nelson
dnelson@onlineathens.com

   Athens Regional Medical Center is taking its campaign to address women's breast cancer on the road in a special vehicle purchased by the hospital's employees.
   On Tuesday, the Athens Regional Breast Health Center unveiled its newly purchased Mobile Mammography Unit, a 40-foot-long, full-service vehicle carrying equipment that will be used to provide mammograms to Northeast Georgia women who have not had the time or the resources to get testing in the past. In Northeast Georgia, only 16 percent of women 65 and older receive regular mammograms.

Bob Jones, left, and Heath Smart of Athens Regional Medical Center try out the wheelchair lift on the new mobile mammography vehicle Monday. The mammography machine is visible inside the door.
Jeff Blake/Staff

"We're going to reach out to people who don't have the ability or a way to come in," said Sarah Boyd, registered radiologic technician and the breast imaging manager of the Breast Health Center.
   Boyd said the hospital screened 9,612 women last year through its Physicians Imaging Center, and found 97 cases of cancer in those tests. She said she hopes the mobile unit will help increase the number of people who get checked for breast cancer.
   "I think a lot of women are afraid to come in," she said. "We have to reach out and let them see who we are and make them comfortable."
   The unit is equipped with state-of-the-art, low-dose breast screening equipment, and the screenings will be conducted by specially trained and certified female technologists who currently work in the hospital's Physicians Imaging Center. The screenings are expected to take about 20 minutes, including signing forms and changing clothes.
   Remarkably, Athens Regional Medical Center staff members are footing the bill for the mobile screening unit bearing a price tag of $397,094 for the vehicle and the equipment. Using the hospital's G.I.F.T. (Getting Involved for Tomorrow) program, employees began in 2001 to contribute through payroll deductions. Connie Deardorff, R.N., B.S.N, who serves as the Breast Health Center program manager, said employees committed monetary amounts ranging from $2 to $20 taken out of each paycheck. So far, the staff has raised $323,357, and the remaining amount should be collected by the end of the year.
   Deardorff said she will be going out to companies and agencies throughout a 17-county area in Northeast Georgia and scheduling stops for the mobile mammography unit. She hopes to arrange some visits through county health departments, especially for patients who have financial needs. There are also plans to work with school systems so teachers can take advantage of the service on teacher work days.
   Scheduling the visits ahead of time helps to gather pre-registrations, so paperwork necessary at the mobile unit is kept to a minimum. The process is further expedited by two dressing rooms and two technicians who sign in patients and conduct the exams.
   Women can obtain a mammogram without a written physician order, but must provide the technologists with the name of their primary care physician. Results will be sent to the physician's office, and a letter with the results will be sent to the patient.
   The American Cancer Society reports one in eight women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime. Of 1,891 patients who had indications of a problem and visited ARMC for diagnostics, 49 showed up positive for cancer.

ARMC breast cancer quick facts

For 2002:

Screenings - 9,612

Detected cases - 97

Diagnostics - 1,891

Detected cases - 49

Screenings are done to patients who have shown no signs of cancer; diagnostics reflect patients who have indications of a potential problem.

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Thursday, April 17, 2003.

This page last modified: April 22, 2004
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