Mobile breast cancer screening clinic to visit Sandy posted on 03/01/2022
When Tami Beaty first discovered her breast cancer she found
it by accident. Now after her personal struggle with the disease, this breast
cancer survivor is helping provide Mount Hood area women with easy access to
cancer screening through her role coordinating a visit from a mobile
mammography program to Sandy in March.
“Women often think that if what they’re feeling is small
that it’s probably nothing,” said Beaty, the volunteer event coordinator for Sandy’s
Seventh-day Adventist Church. “I think it’s really important for women to
understand that catching stuff early makes a world of difference. Don’t skip
your mammogram.”
The Oregon Health & Science University’s (OHSU) Health
Hillsboro Medical Center Mobile Mammography Program will be offering screenings
by appointment at Sandy’s Seventh Day Adventist Church, 18575 Southeast
Langensand Road, Sandy on Wednesday, March 30.
This will be the first visit to Sandy by the mobile program,
which aims to provide convenient access to mammograms closer to home and work,
and serve as a “fast and effective alternative” for women to receive their
regular screenings.
The OHSU van is the only mobile mammography program in
Oregon that provides 3-D mammography (Digital Breast Tomosynthesis) to
communities in the Mount Hood area.
The van has been recently updated with individual dressing
rooms and an emphasis on personal privacy. All screenings are performed by a
female technologist. OHSU radiologists review the images and results are
delivered to patient’s primary care physicians.
“(The program) is very discrete, very private and very safe.
It’s as safe as going to the hospital,” Beaty said. “Sandy is a growing
community. We need services like this out here for people who don’t have
access, and so people don’t have to drive into town.”
Individuals must be at least 35 years old to be eligible for
the screening and have gone one full year since their last screening.
Participants must not be pregnant or have breast fed in the past three months
and should have no known lumps, pain or discharge.
The program accepts most insurance plans including Medicare,
Oregon Health Plan and programs for low-income individuals including ScreenWise
and Project Access. Kaiser Permanente insurance is not accepted by the program.
The Sandy Seventh-day Adventist Church is planning on
hosting the clinic quarterly for the community.
“If this clinic fills up, we’ll offer it every other month,”
Beaty said.
The program is part of a larger public health outreach
program on part of the Sandy church.
The organization is also hosting a vision clinic on March 6.
The church will be offering a diabetes clinic and a depression and anxiety
recovery program in the coming months.
Appointments can be made by contacting Beaty by phone at
503-698-4622. 17 appointments are being offered for the initial visit of the
mammography program with exams currently still available.
For more information on the upcoming event visit https://www.sandyadventistchurch.org.
More information on the mobile mammography program is
available online at
https://tuality.org/hospital-services/breast-health-services/mobile_mammography/.
By Ben Simpson/MT
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