State of the Art Breast Care Available Here in Midland
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
- 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer sometime in their lifetime
- It is estimated in 2017 alone, 252,710 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer along with 63,410 being diagnosed with non-invasive breast cancer.
So, breast cancer touches all of our lives in some way. Whether it is our self, our relative, our co-worker or our church associate, someone we know and are close to will be diagnosed with breast cancer.
Those first days of hearing the news “you have breast cancer” can bring so much uncertainty and various treatment decisions needing to be made. We are honored at The Breast Center to provide two nurse navigators, myself and Charliss Rodgers, to guide patients through treatment options and to put together a treatment plan. When a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer at The Breast Center, we facilitate a meeting with the patient and a surgeon within 24-48 hours, so they can start to formulate a treatment plan, and relieve some of their anxiety and uncertainty.
One question that is normal, is to wonder whether different or better care might be available in a larger city or at a bigger center. We are very happy to report that our Breast Center here in Midland is the only Breast Center in the state of Texas that holds all three of the most distinct honors that can be awarded to a Breast Center.
What does all of this mean to The Breast Cancer patient? They can be assured that the highest standard of care is not only being practiced, but being monitored right here in Midland.
- NAPBC (National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers) in which we chose for the American College of Surgeons to strictly monitor care of patients diagnosed with breast cancer from the Mammogram through two years into Survivorship
- ACR (American College of Radiology) Breast Center of Excellence which means that staff qualifications and equipment are monitored for quality control and assurance and that the utmost safety policies are in place and that image quality is meeting the necessary standards, and
- NQMBC (National Quality Measures for Breast Centers) Breast Center of Excellence which means that our performance is comparable to other breast centers across the country. This is used to ensure that quality exists, particularly in timeliness of care, in our center and where there are opportunities for quality improvement.
The Breast Center is part of a Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Breast Committee that meets quarterly to discuss diagnostic and treatment options and timeliness of care. Part of this team include pathologists, a fellowship trained breast surgeon, medical oncologists and a radiation oncologist. We even have a certified lymphedema specialist and we offer free lymphedema screenings for our Breast Cancer patients, so that symptoms can be prevented or kept to a minimum.
Our fellowship trained breast surgeon, Dr. Sandeepa Musunuru, has the specialized training that provides our Breast Cancer patients with surgical management including identifying patients with a genetic risk and helping patients choose the treatment options with the best medical and cosmetic outcome. Our team at Texas Oncology are part of a network of more than 400 oncologists that see over 55,000 new cases of cancer each year. You can count on this experienced team to provide you with the best options and standard of care without traveling away from home.
Finally, breast cancer, as well as any other diagnosis or stressor that we face in life, keeping things as normal as possible prevents adding more stress to an already stressful situation. Being able to sleep in your own bed, pull into your own driveway, and even shop at your grocery store adds some normalcy and comfort to a very unsettling time. We are so happy that those diagnosed with breast cancer do not need to go anywhere else. Midland and our surrounding communities can be proud of the optimal care provided by our Comprehensive Breast Team!
To learn more about The Breast Center or to schedule your annual mammogram, call (432) 682-9729 or visit www.midlandhealth.org/breastcenter.
This post was written by Jenifer Dumire, BSN, RN, CVRN-BC, CNBN, Nurse Navigator at The Breast Center.