GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Trinity Health Grand Rapids has added a mobile mammography unit to expand access to breast cancer screenings.
The healthcare system tells FOX 17 the portable facility is state-of-the-art and is designed to close the gap in health inequities.
“[It’s] super important for our community to have access and easy access to screening mammography,” says Breast Imaging Supervisor Becky Mercier. “So the goal here is to make sure we're getting to our underserved communities, reducing any barriers that they may have to have a screening mammogram.”
Those barriers include transportation, insurance, cost, and cultural and language barriers.
Trinity Health says the mobile unit’s services extend well beyond Grand Rapids.
“We are rotating throughout our community as far north as Sparta, as far south as Caledonia, and then east and west to Allendale, and over towards the east side of Grand Rapids,” Becky explains. “We're hitting as many communities as we can; we're moving around every day of the week.”
The bus is equipped with 3D imaging technologies, a pair of changing rooms and a reception area, healthcare officials say.
We’re told the mobile facility was made possible by the Saint Mary’s Foundation and the Trinity Health Preserving Our Legacy Fund.
Test results from procedures conducted at the facility will be delivered to patients’ MyChart profiles.
Schedule an appointment online or by calling 855-559-7179.
