March 06, 2009
Breast Care Center Initiative
Contact Name: Brenda Moore
Contact Phone: 831-625-4544 Alternate Phone: 831-625-4505
MONTEREY, Calif. — A community-led fundraising campaign has successfully reached its $2.5 million goal to help bring the next generation in technology to the Breast Care Center of Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula.
With the funds, the Breast Care Center is maintaining its status among the most advanced programs by making a major investment in digital mammography, digital ultrasound technology, and other pieces of the highest-quality and most-current equipment and software for the detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.
The first digital mammography unit has been installed and diagnostic exams began last week. A second machine will be in use by early April, and the remaining equipment will be installed in phases through early summer. The equipment provides sharper, more easily read images, virtually instantaneously.
“We are pleased to be able to provide access to this level of technology to residents throughout the region, ensuring the best chances of early detection,” says Dr. Steven Packer, CEO and president of Community Hospital. “And we are extremely grateful to the community members who led the fundraising effort. Their hard work and commitment to this cause will benefit the thousands of women who use our Breast Care Center every year.”
The fundraising initiative was spearheaded by eight women from the Monterey Peninsula who are deeply concerned about women’s health issues. Committee members are: Laurie Benjamin and Suzanne Lehr, co-chairs; Dede Bent, Linda Cosmero, Betty Kasson, Marcia Modisette, Jane Panattoni, and Lucy Reno.
Half of the committee members are breast-cancer survivors, and all have been touched by the disease, which occurs in one in eight women.
“Our committee believed it was critical that we provide these advanced diagnostic tools to our dedicated staff at the Breast Care Center so that every woman in our community receives access to the best detection and treatment,” says Lehr, an eight-year survivor of breast cancer. “It was thrilling to see the quick responsiveness of our community at all levels to help achieve our goal.”
Nearly 700 individuals, groups, businesses, and others contributed to the fundraising campaign. The Monterey Peninsula Foundation awarded a $500,000 grant, payable over three years and requiring matching contributions. The hospital’s Auxiliary committed $200,000. And the Robert and Virginia Stanton Endowment Fund of Community Foundation for Monterey County provided a $100,000 grant.
More than 17,000 women visit the Breast Care Center annually, and about 200 new cancer cases are diagnosed by Dr. Susan Roux, the center’s medical director, and her colleague, Dr. Kristine Leatherberry.
“It is so important for women to have the advantage of the latest and best technology,” Roux says. “Digital mammographic technology is extraordinary, and we wanted to make it available to our community. Buying new, advanced ultrasound machines also added to the state-of-the-art toolbox.
“Our whole emphasis,” she says, “is early detection with the best possible tools. Only one in five women diagnosed with breast cancer dies from it. The other four are cured. Today, women are more proactive, in general, about their health — eating right, exercising, keeping their cholesterol down, getting screening mammograms. With our cutting-edge diagnostic tools and women’s awareness, survival from breast cancer is expected to continue improving.”
Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula , founded in 1934 and located at 23625 Holman Highway in Monterey , has grown and evolved in direct response to the changing healthcare needs of the people it serves. It is a nonprofit healthcare provider with 205 staffed acute-care hospital beds and 28 skilled-nursing beds, delivering a continuum of care from birth to end of life, and every stage in between. It serves the Monterey Peninsula and surrounding communities through 15 locations, including the main hospital, outpatient facilities, satellite laboratories, a mental health clinic, a short-term skilled nursing facility, Hospice of the Central Coast , and business offices. Find more information about Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula at www.chomp.org.
