Our center has had a big year of upgrading equipment and expanding services so that we can better meet the demands of needed women’s services in the upstate of South Carolina. We have added two additional 3D Tomosynthesis mammography units in the center which now brings us to a total of three. One offers upright 3D stereotactic biopsies, and we still have one full field digital unit for a total of four units.
In July of this year we received our second mobile mammography unit that is also equipped with the new 3D tomosynthesis technology, and this unit is going out into the community six days a week. The primary focus of the mobile unit is to help remove barriers for patients who may have issues easily having access to mammography, whether it be cost, location, or time off of work.
There has been an increase in demand for the units at businesses, churches, community events as well as our local medical practices that like to offer this onsite service. A portion of what we provide on the bus is from grants and free mammograms that are made possible because of our partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation.
“I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the NBCF organization for supporting our mammography outreach program in 2020! Your generous gift provided screening mammograms, diagnostic mammograms and breast ultrasounds to 80 patients who were unable to afford critical screening care and this gift was truly inspiring! In fact, for two of those women it made a life-saving difference as breast cancer was diagnosed and these patients entered into treatment much faster that they would have without your generous support! We sincerely desire to partner with you again in 2021 with the goal of expanding our mobile mammography program to our outreach sites using our new state-of-the-art mobile mammography coach. St Francis is committed to being good help to those in need and I am thrilled to continue to partner with an organization with a similar mission as we work together to further expand mammography access to women in our community.” — Michael Hill, MS, FACHE, CRA, Administrative Director of Imaging, Bon Secours Mercy St. Francis Health System
Donations are always appreciated, but there are lots of great ways to get involved.
