South Jersey's largest health system is offering free mammograms and cancer screenings for women in the state part of Virtua Health's annual Outreach during breast cancer awareness month this time though the hospital is using its 40-foot mobile Health van to make the appointments more convenient and break down barriers preventing women from getting the services they need a senior correspondent Joanna Gagis reports the clinic is available for those with insurance and those without I think mobile programming is the new future I think we traditionally always expect people to leave their communities of comfort to go to a building to get care but now we're bringing the care to the people that care looks like this virta truck that contains a doctor's office inside and is parked today outside of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Burlington congregation members are getting free breast cancer screenings here every woman should get a mammogram when they're supposed to cuz breast cancer is really serious it's something we need to do some women wait till the last minute and it's too late so you should be on top of it church members like Latoskey Booth who says she never misses a screening I work here at Tabernacle that's why it was really convenient for me to have it here and Eliana Cardoso who's not insured and couldn't otherwise get a mammogram or papsmear or any of the other screenings offered by Virtua mobile unit just easy come here I did free I have a day a lot of people come together my friends it's a so nice Virtua says the program is part of their Community Focus on Healthcare they understand the importance of offering as many screenings and connections to care as possible in the first visit knowing that's when you have the greatest opportunity to reach a person says Lisa Rosenberry so if a patient were to come to us they could get a clinical breast exam they would get a papsmear we have a nurse practitioner that's works specifically for this program so they wouldn't have to come with a a prescription and then we do the mamogram we screen for coloral uh screening whether we refer to a GI consultant or they leave with a fit card um that way all their cancer screenings are done the importance of screenings for black women are even greater as mortality rates are 41% higher than any other race says Rucker oncologist Dr Coral amen black women have a higher mortality rate than white women and also higher mortality rate than other racial EIC groups once a year that all women should be getting the stand of care breast Imaging screen for their breasts which includes mammograms and can include ultrasounds and MRIs as well especially for those who are at high risk to get breast cancer and who may have dense breasts for which that is also uh recommended for uh improved screen screening so definitely by the age of 40 begin to have your annual breast mammograms.

Jeannie Richardso knows that access is a challenge for many in her community which is why she partnered with Virtua today to bring the screenings to the congregation a lot of people that are uninsured don't even go to a doctor uh and especially for mammograms or anything like that they can't afford it so coming here with Virtua uh it was just a godsend to have this available to them this truck is out every Monday through Thursday you do need an appointment to be seen here you can do that by visiting virtua.org mobile screening in fact get a group of friends and make an appointment for all of you to be seen in Burlington I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight News NJ Spotlight News