St. Vincent’s Medical Center

The Breast Health Center team at Hartford HealthCare’s Cancer Institute at St. Vincent’s Medical Center (SVMC) is here for you. We are committed to serving all patients’ breast health needs. When you call, you will feel welcomed by the dedicated team members that include bilingual (English/Spanish) schedulers and care coordinators. The scheduler will work with you to obtain your medical history and may ask about any concerns you have. She will make an appointment that fits with your schedule.

SVMC guarantees screening mammograms for any women regardless of health insurance status. The Breast Center has standardized workflows that enable women to schedule their screening without an order from a physician. This is critical because many underserved women do not have a primary care physician.

At the Breast Health Center, we are advancing measures to reduce structural barriers to care by enhancing accessibility to imaging. Measures we are using to accelerate access include providing:

• Ease of scheduling an appointment with a direct number to our scheduler: (475) 210-5501
• Flexible scheduling times in the evening and on weekends
• Transportation Lyft vouchers or bus tokens (the Breast Center is on a bus-line)

We provide breast cancer outreach and education to underserved women in the community by utilizing a bilingual Community Health Worker (CHW) who is a member of the Mission Services and Community Impact care team. She can address both the health and social needs of the most vulnerable at outreach events. The CHW engages women in conversations about their health and can screen for social determinants of health, which includes housing, food security, transportation, utilities, personal safety, education, childcare, and financial strain and then takes action to address those needs. She educates women about the importance of early detection and getting a mammography screening. The CHW works with the Breast Health team scheduler to help women make an appointment. By providing culturally and linguistically appropriate health education and resources, client navigation and health insurance enrollment assistance, she ensures access to screenings among diverse members of the Bridgeport community.

St. Vincent’s is among the largest multidisciplinary cancer treatment centers in Connecticut. We use an ‘above and beyond’ approach to ensure that all follow-up care is secured, and no one is left without resources. We serve all women regardless of socioeconomic status or insurance. Our team-based approach includes bilingual schedulers and care coordinators, health educators and a breast cancer patient navigator, case managers, nurses, and radiologists. We provide a complete continuum of care for our patients. If breast problems are discovered, our patient navigator will follow-up to provide the necessary education and resources.