Free Breast Screenings Come to Massapequa

It's an important health issue for women and a recent event at the Bar Harbour Library made it easier to get breast cancer screenings. 

A mobile screening clinic recently provided free breast exams and digital mammograms outside the library.

Nassau University Medical Center provided the service through funding obtained through the New York Senate Health Committee.

The Mah Jongg League Foundation Breast Health Center at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow not only provides comprehensive screening and follow-up treatment for  more than 10,000  women each year, they also make the screenings as accessible as possible by coming into local communities with their Mobile Breast Imaging Center van.

Uninsured women, especially, benefit from this community service as screenings are done free of charge for women without medical insurance, officials at NUMC said.

The event at Bar Harbour was sponsored by New York State Senator Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., R-Merrick, in conjunction with NUMC’s NuHealth/Nassau Health Care Corporation.

As Christine Mancuso, RN and director of the program at NUMC explains, this service reaches out to women across Nassau County communities.

Breast exams and digital mammography screenings were are performed and the images are read by radiologists at the medical center, according to Christine Mancuso, an RN who serves as the program's director.

The women, and their doctors if they have one, are notified by letter of the findings.

Marlene Canell, a NUMC nurse who works with patients on the Mobile Breast Imaging Center van said women are sent a certified letter if they need an additional follow up.

Uninsured women will receive free re-examination, such as additional mammographic X-rays and/or a breast ultrasound, at the hospital’s Breast Health Center.

Cannell said the group provides a lot of emotional support to the women who come for screenings, particularly those who need additional follow-up.

“It’s natural for women to be a bit nervous when they are being screened," she said.  "We provide support and try to keep women calm through the process.”

Mancuso said they target those who need the screenings the most.

“One of the goals of this program is to screen uninsured women,"  she said.

"We’re funded through State Health Department’s Cancer Services Program in Albany. We go into every community in Nassau County and work a lot with our legislators who sponsor the events. They coordinate getting the word out and women registered for the screenings.”

She added  that  the support of NUMC has been vital. "The van, for example, is not grant-funded," she said " It is funded by the hospital.”

For more information, please call 516-486- NUMC (6862).