Bon Secours St. Francis Health System receives grant from local Susan G. Komen Affiliate
July 10, 2015
GREENVILLE, SC – The Pearlie Harris Center for Breast Health of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System has received a $64,997 grant from the local Susan G. Komen affiliate chapter. The grant will provide breast cancer screenings for uninsured and underinsured women in the Upstate. Bon Secours is the only hospital in Greenville to receive the grant this year, and one of only four in South Carolina.
Bon Secours St. Francis applied for the grant to help women in need in the local community. Mammograms help to detect breast cancer in its earliest stages and many times, women without insurance or financial resources do not have a routine mammogram screening. Clinicians know that early detection is key to the successful treatment of breast cancer and these funds will allow for qualified patients to receive all realms of imaging needed to reach diagnosis, should their initial mammogram screening find an area that requires additional testing.
“Our community grants program is a competitive application process with many applicants,” said Emily Bugay, Susan G. Komen SC Mountains to Midlands mission coordinator. “Funding is based on the merits of the project balanced with the needs identified in the community.”
Bon Secours St. Francis works with local partners to find ways to help provide screenings where they are most needed, including outreach into the more rural communities with the Pearlie Harris Center for Breast Health’s mobile mammography coach. Funded 100 percent by philanthropy, the mobile unit provides access to mammography services and the latest technology to women in the Upstate community who may not otherwise have the resources to get screened. Bon Secours St. Francis anticipates that funds from the Komen grant will provide 380 exams to uninsured women in the community.
“Regular screenings help detect breast cancer in its earliest stages and the Komen grant will allow St. Francis to continue to fight for the one in eight women in our community that will be diagnosed with breast cancer,” said Dana Hagy, director of women’s imaging & diagnostics at St. Francis. “Whether it is through the Pearlie Harris Center for Breast Health or our Mobile Mammography Coach, St. Francis is committed to providing screening for women who might not otherwise receive it.”
The Pearlie Harris Center for Breast Health is dedicated to providing patients with the most advanced breast imaging technology and an expert staff that offers compassionate, convenient care. Bon Secours St. Francis was the first health system to bring full field digital mammography to the Upstate, and it continues to seek out the newest technology that will increase the accuracy of its tests and comfort of its patients. In 2014, the Pearlie Harris Center for Breast Health diagnosed 209 patients with breast cancer.
For more information on the Pearlie Harris Center for Breast Health please visit www.stfrancishealth.org/our-services-breast-health-center.html.
ABOUT BON SECOURS ST. FRANCIS HEALTH SYSTEM
The Mission Statement of Bon Secours St. Francis Health System is to bring compassion to healthcare and to be “Good Help to Those in Need®,” especially those who are poor and dying. As a system of caregivers, we commit ourselves to help bring people and communities to health and wholeness through the healing ministry of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church.
With innovative technology, we heal the body. With faith, we mend the spirit. We draw from a past that’s rich in the healing tradition, while strengthening the future through the guidance and support of the Ministry of Bon Secours and Bon Secours Health System, Inc. To learn more, visit www.stfrancishealth.org.
