The American Cancer Society announced that a $100,000 grant has been awarded to Mosaic Medical to be distributed over the next two years (2014-16) to provide cancer awareness, education, and screening to increase breast and cervical cancer screening rates by 30 percent within low income and uninsured populations throughout Central Oregon.
Women within this population have significantly lower rates of breast and cervical cancer screenings. Mosaic Medical will also target Hispanic/Latino women within Central Oregon. Hispanic women have been known to have the highest rate of cervical cancer due to in part a lack of screening and economic barriers to accessing care.
The grant is part of a $6.4 million gift from the Walgreens Way To Well Commitment® program that engages Walgreens customers in supporting the American Cancer Society’s Community Health Advocates implementing Nationwide Grants for Empowerment and Equity (CHANGE) program. Funding for the CHANGE grants comes from Walgreens customers nationwide, who choose to donate to the American Cancer Society as they pay for their purchases at checkout. The CHANGE grants help promote health equity and ensure that communities with a higher burden of cancer have equal access to education and screening resources.
“There are significant challenges for low income women in accessing breast and cervical cancer screenings,” stated Christine Pierson, Mosaic Medical Chief Medical Officer. “The funding from the American Cancer Society will help make an important difference in raising screening rates for this population in Central Oregon.”
The grant will focus on implementing methods of outreach to remind patients of screenings and provide recall follow-up if an appointment is missed when necessary. Mosaic Medical will conduct outreach meetings for targeted populations across their five clinics. The Society will work with Mosaic Medical to establish a 100% standardized and track-able system in Mosaic Medical’s EMR for breast and cervical cancer screening reminders. Additionally, the grant will strive to increase the number of Supported Screenings at no or low-cost by 13%; which means more screening opportunities for the targeted low income demographic.
According to the American Cancer Society, disparities predominantly arise from inequities in work, wealth, income, education, housing, and overall standard of living, as well as social barriers to high-quality cancer prevention, early detection and treatment services. Additionally, persons with lower socioeconomic status are more likely to experience increased cancer risks due to tobacco use, physical inactivity and poor diet due to environmental or community barriers that provide fewer opportunities for physical activity and less access to fruits and vegetables.
The Society collaborates with community health partners to reach individuals in communities with high burdens of cancer and limited access to cancer screening. Through the CHANGE program, the Society provides resources to increase cancer screening rates in those communities. Since 2011, CHANGE has awarded 258 grants to partners reaching underserved communities across the country; educating over 480,000 individuals about cancer risk and prevention, and providing over 140,000 cancer screenings.
The Walgreens Way to Well Commitment program, which focuses on improving everyday health through the prevention and early detection of leading diseases, has been a supporter of the CHANGE grant program since 2012. But the company’s overall support of the Society spans two decades and has helped to raise a total of $23 million to date in local communities throughout the country in partnership with their customers. In addition to funding CHANGE grants, Walgreens served as a corporate enrollment site for the Society’s Cancer Prevention Study 3 (CPS-3), the historic research study that will help cancer researchers discover more ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer and save more lives.
The American Cancer Society is a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers saving lives and fighting for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. As the largest voluntary health organization, the Society’s efforts have contributed to a 20 percent decline in cancer death rates in the U.S. since 1991, and a 50 percent drop in smoking rates.
Thanks in part to our progress nearly 14 million Americans who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will celebrate more birthdays this year.
In 2013, we celebrated our 100th birthday that also marked our ongoing dedication to finishing the fight against cancer. We’re finding cures as the nation’s largest private, not-for-profit investor in cancer research, ensuring people facing cancer have the help they need and continuing the fight for access to quality health care, lifesaving screenings, clean air, and more. For more information, to get help, or to join the fight, call us anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.
About Walgreens
As the nation’s largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2012 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens www.walgreens.com vision is to be the first choice in health and daily living for everyone in America, and beyond. Each day, Walgreens provides more than 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America.
Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 8,105 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers, medical practices, and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.
