St. Mary’s Hospital to expand breast care
$1 million campaign to fund new program
LEWISTON— Mount St. Mary’s Hospital and Health Care Center launched a $1 million campaign on Wednesday to raise money to establish the Mount St. Mary’s Breast Care Center.
“Breast cancer touches thousands in Niagara County, but currently residents of our community must travel outside of the county for diagnostic procedures that are routine in many communities,” said Judith A. Maness, hospital president and chief executive officer.
Mary Montani has a personal interest in seeing the Breast Health Center open. A member of the Mount St. Mary’s foundation board and a Lewiston resident for 20 years, the mother of five is a breast cancer survivor.
When she started her treatment in 2007, she had to travel to Erie County.
“I spent probably four hours by the time I traveled back and forth and waited for my tests,” said Montani, who was named the campaign’s honorary chairwoman.
“This is a big step for Niagara County,” she said. “I had the flexibility to travel back and forth, but not all women have that option.”
Montani said of the effort, “We are asking for the gift of early detection.”
Maness said that more than $1 million will be needed to bring state-of-the-art breast cancer detection equipment to the hospital and renovate the hospital’s Imaging Center to make the Breast Care Center a reality.
Maness and Montani kicked off the campaign Wednesday evening with campaign chairman Robert Minicucci of Health System Services; Chief of Diagnostic Imaging Dr. Peter Ferin; and Mount St. Mary’s Foundation Chairman Michael Vitch, of CompuMail.
The Breast Care Center will bring a more comprehensive approach to breast care for women, which includes digital mammography and Breast-Specific Gamma Imaging, which is the state-of-the-art imaging technique that has proven to be an effective tool in the early detection of breast cancer, Maness said.
The Mount St. Mary’s Imaging Center already provides services that are fully accredited by the American College of Radiology and is federally certified under the Mammography Quality Standards Act. The Mount St. Mary’s team of breast health professionals helps women assess the risk of developing breast cancer, guides them through mammograms and clinical exams, and teaches the proper method for breast self-examination.
Counseling, education and support programs will be part of the new initiative. Ferin said the hospital plans to add digital mammogram technology, which changes what doctors can do with their data.
“This technology converts X-rays to electronic images of the breast which can be viewed, optimized and stored on a computer,” Ferin said. “It is quicker since there’s no need to wait for film images to be developed. The images can be viewed instantly by the technologist and radiologist, and computer-assisted optimization helps radiologists detect microcalcifications that might be missed on a traditional film mammogram.”
Minicucci, president of Health System Services, said raising the necessary funds will be a total community effort.
For information on the campaign or to make a donation, contact the Mount St. Mary’s Foundation at 298-2166 or 298-2143.
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