The Northwest Indiana Breast Care Center at Methodist Hospitals is a secret in NWI that needs to be revealed. So many great things are happening there and not many people know about them. Let’s change that, shall we?
Northwest Indiana Breast Care Center at Methodist Hospitals is a mammography facility that offers lots of great services to the women and men of Northwest Indiana such as screening mammograms, diagnostic mammograms, ultrasound-guided breast biopsies, mammography-guided biopsies, MRI-guided biopsies, MRIs, and more.
“The average turnaround time for us getting patients in for their biopsies is 1.4 days,” Jennifer Sanders, Breast Center Manager said. “This was designed to decrease anxiety… having that quick turnaround time and the ability to resolve that unknown that comes with cancer is a huge comfort to our patients.”
The Center is accredited through the American College of Surgeons – the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers - and carries the Seal of the American College of Radiologists as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence. The FDA is required to look at their mammograms films every three years to make sure that they are doing things correctly. It is mandatory to send in the mammography films. The Center does that, but also goes beyond that and sends in every image that is taken concerning the breast.
“Any imaging done here at the Center is being looked at and accredited with the highest standards,” Sanders said. “This puts us in the top 10% in the country, which lets people know that we are a quality facility.”
Facing cancer is never easy. It’s often met with fear, sadness, and a sense of being overwhelmed. But at the Northwest Indiana Breast Care Center they make sure that their patients never go through these tough situations alone. Through the aforementioned accreditation program, a complete team is at the ready to help a patient every step of the way. The Center’s Patient Navigator, Stacey Knox, connects with patients and helps with the process to make it less daunting. She schedules appointments for the patients, helps with paperwork, meets with doctors, and other details.
“Our goal is to try and reduce the stress level for patients,” Dr. Anastasia Siatras a breast-fellowship trained radiologist at the Northwest Indiana Breast Care Center at Methodist Hospitals. “It’s important that we have someone helping them and guiding them. Answering questions like if they are candidates for a mastectomy, where to get wigs, the type of bras to wear… things that come along the way that are small details that are still important.”
The Center was one of the first facilities in Indiana to get 3D mammography equipment. With this advanced technology, cancer can be caught much earlier and treatments are more likely to succeed. The Center’s 3D mammography is available at no extra cost to the patient. The feeling is that money shouldn’t prevent anyone from getting exams that could save their lives.
“This is where our education comes in,” Dr. Siatras said. “We need our patients to know how important it is to get those yearly mammograms. We don’t want them to wait until they feel something because by the time that happens there is already a 50% chance that, if it’s cancer, it has spread to the lymph nodes.”
But coming to the Center isn’t possible for some people due to time constraints, transportation constraints, financial constraints, or other issues. Financial issues concerning mammograms have been taken care of thanks to the Chicago Bears. The Bears Care charitable beneficiary of the team conducts and partners with a variety of fundraising initiatives. The funds given to Methodist Hospitals by Bears Care is used to help get uninsured or underinsured women mammograms and other breast care services.
"We're very proud of the relationship we have with Bears Care," Dr. Siatras said. “We love how much they care about their fans here in Indiana.”
For information on the Northwest Indiana Breast Care Center at Methodist Hospitals, call 219-756-4436. To schedule a Mammogram, call 219-981-5440.