As New York City still waits for relief from the polar vortex that has gripped the Northeast for days, the American Italian Cancer Foundation’s mammogram bus soldiers on in its mission to provide free cancer screenings across the city. The AICF mobile unit operates five days a week throughout the year, parking in a different location every day, from Sheepshead Bay to the Bronx, as well as women’s correctional facilities beyond the city limits. Plans for the bus’s schedule are organized with local resources, usually officials in local government like the City Council or the State Assembly, who are best suited to get the word out and help overcome potential obstacles in their communities like language barriers. Today, AICF is partnering for the first time with Audubon Primary Care Medicine, a family medicine practice and urgent care clinic, which sits prominently on Inwood’s main artery of 181st street, in the northern reaches of Manhattan.
“I try to talk to patients, get them in the know,” says Jaslynn Jimenez, an accreditation officer with APCM who also contributes to communications and marketing (“I wear many hats,” she says). She explains that the medical practice came to an agreement with AICF in October of last year to organize a visit from their mobile unit, which APCM has since been promoting with signs and posters in their offices. The outreach has been successful, leading to calls asking about the mobile unit since October, and inquiries fielded by Jimenez beyond the facility as well. “I have more patients ask me on the street, like in passing,” she says. The AICF mammogram bus takes walk-ins, but today, all but one of the appointment slots are already filled, according to Jimenez.
In a country with no national socialized health care and where medical costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy, there is little question regarding the need or utility of the AICF’s mobile unit. “We just want to get more awareness and more services out to the population because this area, a lot of people don’t have insurance, or it’s just not as easy to get the services,” Jimenez explains. APCM generally refers requests for mammograms over to the nearby Lenox Hill Radiology, but appointments are not plentiful and can be costly. State-of-the-art 3D scans, like the ones offered free of charge by the mobile unit, can incur an out-of-pocket cost of over $500.
Most local resources that team up with AICF for mobile unit screening days maintain the relationship year after year, and Jimenez looks forward to future visits as well. “We’re really excited to keep doing these events and keep spreading awareness in the community, and we hope it’s received well.”
