Okay, so I preface this review by saying upfront that I am accustomed to medical procedures being done in the USA (for better or worse. There are lots of pros and cons), and I'm fairly new to the medical system here in Vancouver. I also need to note that I have had at least 15 mammograms in my life to date, so this wasn't my first walk in the mammo park, so to speak. But it WAS my first mammogram here in Vancouver, and wow, it was SO vastly different a procedure here than it's been for me in the States, I totally wasn't expecting what occurred. Perhaps this is the norm here, I don't know, but it sure isn't what I'm accustomed to - and I don't like it.
Where to begin?
Booking an appointment was easy enough. I contacted BC Cancer Screening on Facebook and they responded immediately and were incredibly helpful online, providing lots of useful info and links to book appointments for mammo's and PAPs. When I called this X-ray office, the friendly lady was able to get me a mammo appt for the following day at 9am. Can't beat that! When I got to the office the next day, I arrived at 8:50am and the waiting room was packed (the office is divided in two, for mammogram patients and also for other X-Ray patients). The mammo check-in area was separate and quick. I sat and waited, noting how sterile and utilitarian the waiting room was. All my past experiences getting mammos were at major American hospitals' breast cancer screening departments, and they always had all the cushy niceties: warm seating areas, artwork on the walls, good magazines, tv's, wifi, free coffees and complimentary snacks, soothing music - a calm, soothing, comfortable area. This was nothing like that; here I felt I was at the DMV or similar, waiting with the masses for my number to be called to be seen for some bureaucratic task of sorts.
At 9am on the dot I was summoned inside by a young lady who instructed me to follow her. She never introduced herself or asked me how I was doing. No small talk or any social discourse at all. We got to the mammogram room and she asked me a few medical questions and instructed me to undress from the waist up. Right there! No dressing room. No gown. No privacy whatsoever. Right there in front of her. I complied, as really, why dispense with the illusion of modesty or privacy when one is going to be exposed shortly thereafter to be squeezed into the machine. But I have to say, in my experience of getting 15+ mammo's in my life so far, and hundreds of other medical procedures in the past, (not to mention the fact that I have worked in the medical field, in labs and hospitals for many, many years), I have never experienced or heard of a patient being instructed to undress directly in front of the medical professional and not given a gown. It was unsettling to me, and because the tech didn't ask how I was beforehand or engage with me in any semblance of non-medical conversation, the experience was incredibly sterile and impersonal and cold. For a mammogram experience, where we women are being screened for a "womanly" cancer, in the States they go out of their way to make the experience as MINIMALLY uncomfortable and cold as possible. Here, they made the experience as impersonal and cold as they possibly could. Let's just say that I would NOT want this to be my daughters' first mammo experience, when they are older.
The good news is, I was dressed and walking out of the office at 9:08 am. Yes, you read that right, the whole experience took 8 minutes in total, including undressing and re-dressing. I've never in my life had such a fast mammo experience. It felt like an assembly line there and I was just another cog in the machine. (The advantage to this, of course, is if one is a busy professional, you can be assured of getting in and out of here very, very quickly).
Ultimately, what matters most is the accuracy of the mammo machine and the skills of the technician and the doctors who interpret the results, right? I have to assume that the machine and the expertise of the techs and doctors here are excellent, and that's what matters most. So I rate this place highly for their skillsets and, God knows, for how efficiently they run the office. But for the "bedside manner" stuff, and making patients comfortable...not so much. read more