Providers can help promote cancer screenings during COVID-19
07 July, 2020
There has been a good deal of discussion in the Early Detection Task Force and the Northern Nevada Breast Cancer Collaborative about cancer screening rates during COVID-19. It was expected that there would be a big drop in screenings the last couple of months because facilities were purposely delaying them to limit exposure. Now there is a concern, as facilities begin to open back up, how can we ensure screening numbers climb back up to what they were before the virus?
Issues include the back-log of people who need to get scheduled, insurance coverage for those now on unemployment, safety concerns (people still being fearful to go for screenings and fear caused by differing safety procedures from facility to facility), and people just forgetting to follow up to be rescheduled.
How you can help
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Are you a screening service provider? Contact us with any information you would like us to share about reopening to screenings and NCC will broadcast this information to our network.
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We'll share your articles and social media posts regarding this issue as well as compile our own social media posts.
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Please keep in mind, it's critical to promote how safety precautions will differ region to region and facility to facility; and that this is ok and normal.
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If you have ideas of how we can encourage people to talk with their doctors about getting back on track with screenings, share this with us as well.
Here are some links to articles that were referenced in the meetings for more background.
- https://ehrn.org/wp-content/uploads/Preventive-Cancer-Screenings-during-COVID-19-Pandemic.pdf
- https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/rycan.2020204011
- https://www.jacr.org/article/S1546-1440(20)30510-X/pdf?_ga=2.4737210.8248544.1590100048-716689826.1527265221
Thank you for putting energy into making cancer screening a priority for Nevadans again.
If you have any feedback or questions, please reach out to Cassie Goodman, MSK, CES, EMR, Cancer Early Detection Programs Manager for NCC.