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GREENVILLE, SC (FOX CAROLINA) – During the pandemic, health care providers nationwide have seen significant drops in people getting routine screening procedures, which include mammograms.
But the good news is that appointments are now back to normal, according to staff at Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital.
The staff at Pearly Harris Breast Health Center are busy these days, but this time last year, they were seeing fewer patients. We want to remind you of the importance of getting back on track with your health care, especially during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“We noticed that patients who missed annual mammograms in 2020 didn’t come back,” said Amanda Yanchus, lead mammography tech at the Pearly Harris Breast Health Center.
At the Pearly Harris Center, they do breast health screenings. But COVID has made that very difficult.
“People were uninsured, they were getting sick, and there was just fear of coming to medical school,” Yanchus said.
The center closed for a short period in March 2020, and for part of last year you can only make a limited appointment. Knowing that hundreds of filters had been missed, workers began making calls.
“We’ve had over 800 calls in three months,” Yanchus said.
About 20 percent of the patients they called were returned for testing. Now, they are back to seeing 100 to 150 patients a day.
“You don’t want to dismiss this,” said Christine Woodward.
Woodard knows the importance of screening and self-examination. She is not only an ultrasound tech at the Pearly Harris Breast Health Center, but she is also a breast cancer survivor.
“It wasn’t even a normal self-examination, something happened to me,” Woodard said. “I was 36 [years old] In the examination and if I wait until 40 [years old] And I didn’t feel anything, things could have been very different,” she said.
For those considered to be at high risk, regular mammogram screenings should begin between ages 40 and 30. But Woodard said, self-affirmation helped her.
“Sometimes it’s easy to ignore change because you don’t want the bad news. “But if it’s bad news, the sooner you hear it, the better the outcome,” she says.
The Pearly Harris Breast Health Center has completed more than 600 mammograms in the past three months. They also have a program to help uninsured patients get tested. Click for more information over here.
Copyright 2022 WHNS. all rights reserved.
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