CMHP’s breast health specialist program, which has been funded by the Turner Foundation, is designed to facilitate access to appropriate cancer care services within the healthcare system.

For cancer, early and better access to quality care is critical to successful treatment. Through this program, CMHP, in collaboration with the Springfield Regional Cancer Center and Springfield Regional Imaging Center, is committing itself to addressing the need that once a patient is diagnosed, follow-up care is expedited.

The breast health specialist assists patients by offering a broad array of services and expertise including:

• helping to schedule and keep medical appointments,
• arranging follow-up care,
• coordinating and streamlining insurance paperwork, and
• identifying local resources and appropriate support.

According to national cancer publications (Cancer Practice and Oncology Issues), similar programs produced the following results:

• patients were more likely to obtain recommended breast biopsies (85.7% of navigated patients compared with 56.6% of non-navigated patients)
• patients had their biopsies completed in a more timely fashion—71.4% of biopsies being completed before 4 weeks compared with 38.5% of non-navigated patients
• patients showed improvements in the stage of breast cancer at diagnosis and
  5-year survival rates, after improved access to cancer screenings and initiation of a patient navigation program

The CMHP breast health specialist office is located on the second floor of the Springfield Regional Imaging Center, 1343 N. Fountain Blvd., Springfield. To contact the breast health specialist, call (937) 342-5975.