New Partnership Aims to Increase Access to Breast Health Care for Underserved Communities
March 18, 2024 5:55 pmFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MARCH 1, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT
Sharifah Sims-Williams, Communications Director (cell) 314-339-3183 Email: sswilliams@affiniahealthcare.org
Meghan Simorka, Gateway to Hope (cell) 314.536.8652 Email: msimorka@gthmo.org
ST. LOUIS, MO – Affinia Healthcare is continuing to build upon its award-winning women’s healthcare offering with a new partnership for breast cancer prevention and care.
Affinia Healthcare is joining forces with Gateway to Hope, an organization that provides early prevention and free education on breast care and cancer by working to heal families and communities, with equitable, life-saving treatments, and compassionate breast health care.
“Breast cancer has a 90+ percent cure rate, when caught soon enough and treated,” said Dr. Kendra Holmes, Affinia Healthcare President & CEO. “The care exists, but access to it is inequitable; African-American women have a 40 percent higher death rate than White women. This partnership allows us to address this inequity and provide high-quality breast health care to women in our community when they need it. This partnership will help save lives.”
When Affinia Healthcare’s exceptional care team identifies a patient in need of breast health care, Gateway to Hope will help by navigating patients to — and through — the process of screening, diagnostics and treatment as needed. By providing critical information, emotional and logistical support, and financial assistance, the partnership aims to remove barriers that exist all too often for patients and families.
“This new partnership between Affinia Healthcare and Gateway to Hope will ensure more women can access community resources, financial and emotional assistance, and essential programs like Show Me Healthy Women – our state’s program that pays for the cost of breast screening for eligible women,” said Katie Manga, CEO for Gateway to Hope. “In turn, more women will be screened and diagnosed early enough to receive the affordable, effective treatment they need and deserve.”
This program and partnership are a response to an urgent situation. Gateway to Hope is here to serve all of Affinia Healthcare’s patients who need breast healthcare, including routine screening mammograms, diagnostic care, and even breast cancer treatment if needed.
Affinia Healthcare is accepting appointments for mammograms through its partnership with BJC Healthcare. To schedule an appointment, please call 314-814-8552, or email nmurtic@affiniahealthcare.org.
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About Affinia Healthcare
Affinia Healthcare is a dynamic and transformative health system, providing affordable primary and preventive health care located in St. Louis, Missouri. Affinia Healthcare is a community health center, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is accredited through The Joint Commission and NCQA organizations. Through its 11 locations (which includes school-based health centers) in St. Louis City and County, Affinia Healthcare serves over 43,700 people per year, of whom more than 90 percent have incomes under 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Approximately 70 percent of patients served are Black or African American, 11 percent are Hispanic/Latinx, and over 4,000 are un-housed. The Affinia Healthcare Foundation depends on a wide array of funding sources and individual donor contributions to care for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised in our community. To make a donation to Affinia Healthcare, visit www.affiniahealthcare.org/donate.
For more information about Affinia Healthcare, call 314-814-8700, or visit www.affiniahealthcare.org.
About Gateway to Hope
Gateway to Hope’s mission is to remove barriers to affordable, timely, quality breast healthcare and empower people to live full and healthy lives. Whether you aren’t sure when to get your first mammogram, are fearful of the cost or potential outcomes of care, or simply want to understand how you can take good care of your breast health while juggling the demands of life – Gateway to Hope is here to alleviate burdens and make sure healthcare is accessible to you. Founded in 2005 by two physicians who saw a need to ensure no woman had to choose between life-saving breast healthcare and putting food on the table, Gateway to Hope has provided comprehensive support to thousands of individuals to date. From financial assistance to emotional and logistical support to screening, diagnostic and breast cancer care, Gateway to Hope helps individuals not just survive, but thrive.
To learn more about Gateway to Hope, visit www.gthmo.org and www.mobreasthealth.org.
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