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New mobile mammography unit takes wing
From Spotlight on Health Aug./Sept. 2007
Nancy Pierskalla has a yearly
mammogram at the St. Cloud
Hospital Breast Center’s mobile
mammography unit when it visits
Clearwater Clinic, affiliated with
St. Cloud Medical Group.
“It’s so convenient and fast,” said
Pierskalla, who lives in Annandale. “I leave home in the morning, get
my mammogram done in Clearwater
and then go to work in Buffalo. It’s
much handier than driving all the
way to St. Cloud for it. The staff
here is so nice and friendly, and
there’s no waiting. You get right in.”
The Breast Center is reaching out to
patients through an updated mobile
mammography unit. |
Darla Gratke, radiologic technologist for mammography, talks with patient
Nancy Pierskalla
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CentraCare
Health Foundation received a
$295,000 gift from the Morgan
Family Foundation, a private family
foundation based in Yellow Springs,
Ohio, to purchase the unit. This
allows the Breast Center to continue
its mission of providing early breast
cancer detection on the road.
“This service helps deliver early
screening and detection, providing
peace of mind for some and lifesaving
intervention for other women
in Central Minnesota,” said
Radiologist Jody Bolton-Smith,
M.D., Regional Diagnostic Radiology
at St. Cloud Hospital.
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The Breast Center’s mobile unit
provides 3,600 yearly mammograms
and education to women at nearly
20 sites in Central Minnesota.
The
program began in 1985 after hospital
staff saw a need for more convenient
screening. |
The mobile unit’s outreach locations
include:
- Albany Area Hospital
- Array Services Group, Sartell
- CentraCare Clinic - Becker
- CentraCare Clinic - St. Joseph
- Clearwater Clinic, affiliated
with St. Cloud Medical Group
- Cold Spring Clinic, affiliated
with St. Cloud Medical Group
- College of St. Benedict
- Foley Medical Center
- Mid-Minnesota Family Medicine
Center, St. Cloud
- PrimeVest Financial Services, St. Cloud
- Quebecor Printing, St. Cloud
- Stearns, Inc., Sauk Rapids
and Grey Eagle
- St. Cloud Hospital
- St. Cloud VA Medical Center
- St. John’s University
- St. Peter’s Church, St. Cloud
- St. Scholastica Convent, St. Cloud
The mobile unit visits Mid-Minnesota
Family Medicine Center to do
mammograms for the Sage Screening
program about five days per year. The
Sage Screening program provides quality
breast and cervical cancer screening free of
charge to low and moderate-income
Minnesota women age 40 or older who
are uninsured or under insured. There are
many diagnostic screening services
covered under this program, including
office visits for breast and pelvic exams,
mammogram (breast exam required) and
Pap smears. If further testing, such as a
biopsy, is needed, it would be covered. To
learn more about the program, please call
Clinical Coordinator Shar Wallack at
Mid-Minnesota Family Medicine Center
at (320) 240-3159.
Learn more about the Breast Center
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