For women facing a mammogram after discovering a breast lump the sometimes long wait for results can be stressful and frightening. Imaging for Women at 630 NW Englewood Road in Kansas City, Mo. offers options that can make the experience less stressful by providing immediate test results at the time of a patient’s exam.
The team at Imaging for Women offers the highest quality of diagnostic imaging services in a comfortable service-oriented environment. Services include work-ups of any breast abnormality including breast ultrasound if needed at the time of a patient’s appointment, ultrasound guided breast biopsy and stereotactic breast biopsy. The government-certified mammography-center (FDA/ACR) provides registered technologists with advanced certification, state-of-the-art technology, competitive prices and most insurance plans are accepted.
“We provide mammography for screening and also diagnostics screening for asymptomatic women,” Phyllis Fulk, Imaging for Women administrator said. “We're looking to find breast cancers when they're very small. We do breast ultrasounds and biopsies right here in the office. It's also a fraction of the cost of hospitals. We provide full service ultrasounds, pelvic and abdominal, and we also do Dexa bone scans to check bone density and find out if the patient has osteoporosis or is more susceptible to fractures.”
Personalized service is a priority and patients can get in and out faster and easier than at hospitals. The staff ensures that when a patient arrives in the office they are treated like family and someone is with them every step of the way.
“While patients are here doctors are reading their mammograms," Fulk said. Patients don’t get sent home to wait a week for results. Before you leave our office if results are abnormal you talk to the doctors and they answer your questions and we have the report back to your primary care physician usually one hour after you leave. Most radiologists, you don't even know their name. Our patients know our doctors by name. If they have a favorite one they request them.”
Because of the high anxiety patients experience while waiting on results, Imaging for Women's Dr.Troy Voeltz and Dr. Allison Zupon go out of their way to work patients in if they call on a Friday so they won’t have to worry throughout the weekend. Both doctors are fellowship trained and have a year of extra training.
The center works with a special lab that gives results on biopsies within 48 hours and often, on the same day the patient receives the biopsy.
“We look at the results right away and if I think there's something there that I want to look at more closely, I do,” Zupon said. “I do the extra pictures on the mammogram and the ultrasound and sometimes the biopsy on the same day. And it's not a sterile environment. Somebody is with you every step of the way.”
The center has state-of-the-art equipment and along with Massachusetts General Hospital was the first to offer the Pristina Dueta, an innovative remote control that allows women to manage their own compression during a mammogram.
“We apply minimum compression on the mammogram so the patient actually controls the amount of compression,” Fulk said. “We found that when a patient is controlling the remote they are going to give us greater compression because they are in control. Greater compression means less radiation to the patient and better imaging for the radiologist, the best mammogram you can get.”
Statistics have shown that 89% of the center’s patients are applying greater compression with the remote than last year because they are in full control. Fulk describes it as a psychological concept similar to a beautician combing a person’s hair after washing it when it often is more uncomfortable than if a person does it themselves.
Dr. Mark Malley, who started Imaging for Women in 1997 and recently retired, was one of the innovators for Automated Breast Ultrasound (ABUS) which is used at the center for women who have breast tissue that is dense.
“With the lady who has dense breast tissue a lump is like finding a snowball in a snowstorm. because both of them appear white,” Zupon said.
With ABUS the doctors are finding three more cancers on every 1,000 women screened.
“When people say ‘I don't know where to go for my mammogram’ I say make sure you know who's reading your mammogram because you might go to a facility where the radiologist reads CTs or MRIs of the knees most of the day and then reads mammograms at the end of the day,” Fulk said. “So who do you want reading your mammograms, one who reads 17,000 a year and is an industry expert or someone who's an expert on MRIs of the knee? So I encourage patients to ask who the radiologist is and what their credentials are.”
The staff’s goal is to keep prices affordable so healthcare will be available to everyone they serve. Fulk said since the practice is not in a big hospital facility the overhead is very affordable which helps keep costs down. “Our small management team can make decisions quickly so that's why we're able to have state-of-the-art equipment and make wise decisions financially and provide cheaper costs for our patients,” Fulk said.
“We keep our prices low. If you treat women who don't have insurance or they're worried about how they're going to take care of the medical bills and their families and you know that they have breast cancer, it's just not excusable to not care about these patients,” Zupon said. “Our staff will bend over backwards to take care of people so I have the freedom to truly be the kind of doctor I've always wanted to be and that's very rewarding.”
Imaging for Women is also an international show site and people come from around the world to see the latest technology in action.
“The atmosphere that we have here, there's not another facility in this area like it,” Fulk said.