Boone Health celebrated it’s new breast care clinic Tuesday to introduce a designated setting where patients will get specialized care for benign and malignant conditions.
The clinic hopes to address the growing breast care needs in Columbia with more scheduled appointments and a space with nine exam rooms, one procedure room and space for up to five practitioners to see patients.
The clinic began seeing patients May 5 and will have around 15 permanent staff members.
The clinic is also planning on opening a prosthetic bra shop early next year that will provide individual consultations for patients.
Previously at Boone Health, breast care treatment was provided under the general surgery department.
Anna Peterson, a general surgeon and the leader of the clinic, said that breast cancer treatment has become very specialized and small-town institutions don’t always keep up with it.
“As we move forward, the nuances of each patients treatment have become more specialized,” she said. “As a result, we needed to show that we had a focus but also needed to provide a place where we can get more patients in as people are coming from further and further out of the city.”
Boone Health’s Chief Executive Officer Brady Dubois called this opening “a really proud moment” for the health system.
“The space was designed around the patient experience,” he said. “Every room, every process, every provider was brought together to support individuals at some of the most vulnerable moments of their life.”
There are three facets to the type of breast care provided at the clinic, Peterson said.
One is for women who have a high risk for breast cancer. They can come to the clinic to learn about mitigating their risk and other options, such as increased screening, medication, genetic testing or lifestyle changes.
Another facet of care is aimed at benign breast disease.
“Sometimes, women find that they have a lump, but it doesn’t look like a cancer lump, but what do you do about it? How do you take care of it?” Peterson said.
Finally is breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, follow-up care and survivorship, or managing long-term impact of breast cancer that does not end after someone is cancer free.
Starting early next year, the clinic will open a prosthetic bra shop where patients can shop specialty bras and prosthetic inserts that some patients need after partial or full breast removal.
Currently, when a patient is in need of prosthetic bra, Peterson typically directs them to St. Louis.
Providing this care within the clinic is something she’s wanted to do for around three years, she said.
“We’re training our own staff,” she said. “I am one step away from being a certified mastectomy fitter, and then we train all the rest of our staff too so that we will always maintain that knowledge right in the clinic.”
Peterson said she hopes the new clinic will complement the breast care services at MU Health Care, which has dedicated teams at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center for screening, diagnosis and treatment.
“The university has a great program as well, and we’re just a good complement to each other,” Peterson said.
