The Early Bird flies south to save lives
When hurricane Katrina shut down the charity hospital system’s breast cancer-screening program in New Orleans, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC) in Baton Rouge responded fast with their new forty-foot long mobile cancer-screening clinic, aptly named The Early Bird.
A free service for uninsured patients, the mobile unit is part of MBPCC’s C.A.R.E. Network whose mission is to save lives through early cancer detection.
“In Louisiana, we have higher death rates from cancer. It’s not that we have more cancer here, but we die from cancer more often because it’s not being diagnosed early enough,” said Lori McCallum, executive director of MBPCC’s C.A.R.E. Network.
Operational funding came quickly from The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and The American Breast Cancer Foundation.
Visits to the low-income and uninsured in New Orleans area are now twice a month. But in June, MBPCC will reevaluate the need for services of mobile medical clinic.
“The way it looks now, the charity hospital system is not likely to resume screening mammography services by June,” said Ms. McCallum.
Ohio-based specialty vehicle manufacturer LifeLine Mobile Inc. built The Early Bird. The medical vehicle is equipped with three exam rooms, one of which converts into a mammography suite.
A portable mammography unit (about the size of an office copier) loads into the space using the on-board wheelchair lift. When not used for mammography, the space coverts back into a traditional exam room.
“You feel like you are in a physician’s office with full eight-foot ceilings. You’re not looking at the back of the driver’s seat,” said Ms. McCallum.
It was important to MBPCC to have a first-class mobile clinic so underserved citizens would also have access to professional, state-of-the-art clinical environments as well.
Prior to purchasing the LifeLine vehicle, Ms. McCallum worked on several outreach vehicles belonging to partner organizations. This was especially helpful as she could use those experiences to identify exactly what she thought would work best for the C.A.R.E. Network’s mobile medical clinic – ensuring it would be customized perfectly for cancer screening services and patient education.
“Working on other vehicles gave us a huge advantage in that we knew what we were looking for. The visit to the factory was great. Lee, Karen, Ken, and their entire team were very accommodating. They spent lots of time showing us how they manufacture the unit. And they were just delightful to work with – and have been ever since,” said Ms. McCallum.
LifeLine Mobile Inc. initially helped develop the business plan. But it took two-and-a-half years for the MBPCC office of development to fund The Early Bird’s purchase.
Capital contributors were: the Charles M. and Mary D. Grant Foundation, ExxonMobil Baton Rouge and Senator Mary Landrieu and Congressman Richard Baker who were able to secure funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Donors who made generous gifts to provide 2006 programming support for the mobile clinic include: Amedisys Home Health Services, Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation, Rubicon LLC, Louisiana Breast Cancer Task Force, The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Mrs. Harry A. Johnson Jr. in memory of Dr. Margaret E. Johnson, and Rotary Club of Baton Rouge Foundation.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. The Early Bird is busy distributing EZDetect kits, a new kit designed to detect hidden blood in the bowel movement, which could be an early sign of colorectal cancer. Screening is easy. The patient uses the three-tissue kit at home; and simply drops a tissue into the toilet bowl each time after three consecutive bowel movements. Change in tissue color indicates a positive test: results are sent in by reply card.
Residents of the FEMA villages in Baton Rouge appreciate the mobile medical clinic visits. Travel is difficult for this population that had previously relied on public transport.
Amy Benton, communications director of the Center, said, “The CARE network was started in 2002 and has screened more than 12,000 people, and growing – thanks to The Early Bird.”
cr @ March 20, 2006