From the first contact with this phone team, by myself, and later also by my husband, Mission Hope…read morestood apart. When I arrived for my appt upstairs, Dezeray, the scheduler, and Jean, the senior volunteer, kindly greeting me at the patient window, all the way through to the end of the appointment, this was the BEST women's breast health care appointment I have ever had.
My sister died of breast cancer this year, and the process of scheduling radiology appointments, from diagnostic mammograms, sonograms, CTs, biopsies, and surgeries was a nightmare at UCLA Health in SLO and their providers. Getting the results of all of her tests, getting doctors to communicate with radiologists, online portals, labs, etc, in a timely manner so that she could get lifesaving treatment was incredibly stressful, frustrating, and infuriating at UCLA Cancer Center in San Luis Obispo.
I've been so traumatized from the memories of my sister's horrific experience at UCLA... she was a quiet patient... wanting to be nice and not make waves with doctors and staff... her doctors there were always one step behind with her treatment options...
She died as a direct result of a doctors there telling her that her breast cancer was small, and "nothing to worry about" and advised her to "delay treatment and go ahead and plan Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends because these kinds of cancers are cured every day."
If someone has an aggressive cancer, they don't have that kind of time! She certainly did not.
My husband and I each tried to make a diagnostic appt for a mammogram/sonogram at SLO Diagnostic in San Luis Obispo, and we were both told it would be the end of March before there was a date open. They also made it clear that they would only schedule the appointment for the mammogram after they had the hard records of my mammograms at another places in the past 5 years... in hand (on a physical CD!!!) even though they had done a sonogram of me there only 2 years ago. They told us that unless I or my doctors did the work of calling two other providers, and gathering any records I might have from anywhere I went in the last 5 years, they wouldn't even begin the scheduling process for appointments 3 months from now! They told me to call back when I had everything in hand.
Then I called Mission Hope. The caring woman who answered the phone, told me that she would initiate a records transfer for me right away. She said she would call all of the other providers herself and get them sent over! She then went ahead and made me an appointment... in 1 week not 12 weeks!!!
This also meant the scans would be done at Mission Hope before the end of the year, so that my copay was satisfied and I had to pay $850 LESS out of pocket!
Even better was what happened when I went into their state of the art imaging center in Santa Maria. They took me in right away, and a woman helped me understand the mammogram machine. It was snug but did not hurt me when she tightened it. I could tell the tech hand tightened it and didn't let the computer squash me like some techs do.
After that appt, I had a sonogram because I was having a bit of pain on one side. Wendy was the sonographer and she was amazing. She got that I was a bit stressed about this breast pain 2 days before Christmas, so she had me wait in her room while she and the Radiologist went over and read all of the reports. What a relief!
I can't imagine if I had gone with any of the imaging centers I had called in slo county. I would be worried about possibly having breast cancer for the next 3 months... all the way through Christmas and New Years... all the way to March or much later before I would have any results in hand... if then because most places have terrible online records systems that take even more months to be updated.
What kind of toll does that take on a patient's mind?
The Mission Hope Cancer Center Team is the only team I will trust with my breast care from now on. It is obvious this is a women run, professionally and compassionately based medical practice that cares about its patient care first.
Thank you so much, Mission Hope, for giving me health care to believe in again