From the July 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Purchasing through a grant was certainly a learning process. Our for-profit organization needed to acclimate to bureaucracy of a government funding agency. We learned early on that we would have to work under the strict oversight of the funding agency and our deadlines were necessarily pushed out. This included all aspects of the mobile mammography coachpurchasing decisions including approval of marketing and media campaigns.

To align with Windsong’s high quality standards, the mobile mammography coach offers Windsong’s standard Hologic 3D mammography (digital breast tomosynthesis). As one of the first free-standing breast imaging facilities in the area to offer this technology, we have long been committed to using state of the art technology to improve early detection of cancer and reduce recall rates. Having the same technology on the mobile coach enables us to cover time off easily. In total, Windsong hired six new staff to support this important initiative.


During the launch of the mobile coach, Dr. Thomas Summers, president of Windsong announced, “This aggressive breast cancer screening initiative eliminates barriers to screening in an effort to improve access to a vital service.” It is paying huge dividends to the women that have been screened. Thus far, the mobile mammography team has served nearly 500 women over the course of 3 months. Windsong has already detected cancer at a rate three times what we would anticipate in a normal screening environment. We attribute this to the fact that many of these women have either never been screened or are not being screened regularly. The ability to detect cancers early and give women the ability to treat their cancers when they are most easily treated has provided an incredibly positive and rewarding experience.

This initiative has not come without its challenges. The other grant awardees are hospital systems with built in primary care services to assist with follow up. Although we have an impressive patient navigation system in place, the absence of primary care has made it difficult to serve patients that present without a script. Although having a nurse practitioner to write scripts has not been an issue, identifying an NP with an overseeing physician has been a great challenge to our organization.

Another area of consternation has been trying to educate the underserved women that are less likely to be screened. It is difficult to dispel the myths surrounding breast cancer screening and educate women who fear that if they have been asked to return for additional imaging, they surely have cancer. Many underserved women are reluctant to return for their additional imaging because of this fear of a cancer diagnosis or concern over cost.

July 2018 Magazine

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