November 7, 2015

On Wednesday, October 28, CHAS welcomed visitors from the American Cancer Society, Great West Division. CHAS received a grant this year through the American Cancer Society, with funding from the Anthem Foundation, to improve the colorectal cancer screening rate at CHAS Maple Street Clinic. During the first six months of the grant, Maple Street’s staff have increased their clinic’s screening rate from 8.8% to 16.7%, with a goal to achieve 25% by April 2016.

Audrey Fine, Health Systems Manager, Primary Care, Great West Division, American Cancer Society, Inc., discusses colorectal cancer screening efforts with CHAS Maple Street Clinic providers and Medical Assistants

Audrey Fine, Health Systems Manager, Primary Care, Great West Division, American Cancer Society, Inc., discusses colorectal cancer screening efforts with CHAS Maple Street Clinic providers and Medical Assistants

Oftentimes patients schedule a medical visit to address an immediate need, such as congestion or fever. However, a critical component of primary care is prevention. CHAS staff actively encourage patients to receive appropriate cancer screenings. Annual tests can detect cancer of the colon, cervix, and breast at early stages.

Audrey Fine with the American Cancer Society concluded her remarks with CHAS Maple Street Clinic medical staff by sharing a very appropriate quote that beautifully captures the impact of preventative health care:

“The names of the patients whose lives we save can never be known. Our contribution will be what did not happen to them. And, though they are unknown, we will know that mothers and fathers are at graduations and weddings they would have missed, and that grandchildren will know grandparents they might never have known, and holidays will be taken, and work completed, and books read, and symphonies heard, and gardens tended that, without our work, would never have been.”

 

–Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, Former President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Excerpted from Dr. Berwick’s plenary address at IHI’s 16th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care (December 2004).

 

Thank you to the American Cancer Society and Anthem Foundation for their generous financial contribution, and the Cancer Society’s excellent ongoing technical assistance, to help improve access to preventive health care for CHAS patients.