The Comprehensive Breast Care Center (CBCC) offers you understandable, practical advice about being newly diagnosed with breast cancer.
What does a consultation include?
- Techniques for post-operative drain care
- A review of post-operative exercise
- Tips to reduce the risk of developing lymphedema
- Information on community support groups
Additionally, we give you a gift bag filled with educational materials and "comfort items" like lotions, tea bags, a mug, and chocolate. Funded by Golfing for Breast Cancer, the gift bags are delivered to all newly diagnosed patients.
For more information about the CBCC contact:
Suzanne Burns, RN, CBCC Coordinator
(315) 624-5764
sburns@mvnhealth.com
Perfect Fit Boutique
Also at The Breast Care Center, we carry post-mastectomy products in the private, comfortable setting of our Perfect Fit Boutique.
Our registered nurses are trained fitters who help women chose from a large selection of items including:
- Amoena and Trulife products
- Bras
- Prosthesis
- Bathing suits.
Does insurance pay for services and products?
We bill your insurance companies directly, and the Zonta Club of Utica generously donates funds for women who are uninsured or under insured. We also provide free hats, scarves and donated wigs.
When are you open?
The Perfect Fit Boutique is open Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4:30pm and evenings by appointment. For more information or to make an appointment, call the CBCC at (315) 624-5764.
Community Education
Each October, the CBCC recognizes Breast Cancer Awareness Month through community education programs. Throughout the year, we also offer programs on breast health.
These 30 to 60 minute programs are presented to:
- Civic organizations
- Churches
- Senior centers
- Schools
The program provides basic review of guidelines on breast self exams, clinical breast exams, and mammography (also available in Vietnamese, Russian, and Bosnian).
Call (315) 624-5764 to schedule the program for your organization.
Our Breast Care Team
Suzy Burns, RN, CBPN-IC
Nurse Navigator
Nancy Shaheen, MD
Radiologist
Alicia DeTraglia, MD
Medical Oncologist
Debra Walz, RN, MS, WHNP-BC, AOCNP
Women’s Health and Oncology Nurse Practitioner
About Our Breast Care Center Coordinator
Suzy Burns, RN, of The Comprehensive Breast Care Center completed EduCare’s Breast Health Navigator training program and is certified to serve as a breast health educator for Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare. Breast Health Navigators coordinate the clinical, educational and support needs of breast cancer patients and their families.
Burns is FSLH’s coordinator for the American Cancer Society’s Annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event, volunteer for National Cancer Survivor’s Day, advisor for the After Breast Cancer Support Group, and a Hospice and Palliative Care volunteer. Burns also received The Genesis Group and Medical Societies of Oneida and Herkimer Counties 2009’s Excellence in Healthcare award.
Suzanne Burns, RN, CBCC Coordinator
(315) 624-5764
sburns@mvnhealth.com
About our Breast Care Center Nurse Practitioner
As a Women’s Health and Oncology Nurse Practitioner at The Regional Cancer Center of Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH), Debra A. Walz, RN, MS, WHNP-BC, AOCNP, STAR/C, provides care to women including women at risk for and with cancer. Walz follows women from the time of a breast cancer diagnosis, through treatment and into survivorship.
“FSLH’s Breast Care Center offers women who are at high risk for breast cancer due to family history, or a previous breast cancer diagnosis a place they can go to ask questions, receive clinical breast exams and have mammograms or other imaging needs ordered,” said Walz. “My presence at the Breast Care Center allows women to have access to a provider who is board certified in oncology, someone who follows them closely if they have these risks. If a woman needs additional evaluation, a diagnostic work up or treatment, she will be linked into the appropriate services quickly and I, along with my colleagues, will become part of her treatment team.”
Walz is part of a multidisciplinary breast cancer team that provides advanced oncology care to meet the needs of breast cancer patients. The team focuses on cancer prevention and detection, diagnosis and treatment, survivorship and rehabilitation. The Breast Cancer Program’s goal is to offer seamless, coordinated care so patients and their families can focus on getting well rather than on the sometimes overpowering details of managing their diagnosis and treatment.
Breast Imaging Center of Excellence
The American College of Radiology (ACR) has designated Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare as a Center of Excellence for our Breast Ultrasound, Stereotactic Breast Biopsy, Mammography, Ultrasound, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Computed Tomography (CT) and Nuclear Medicine services.
There is strength in numbers and at FSLH’s Regional Cancer Center, a team approach is taken to care for patients. FSLH offers comprehensive breast care services including digital mammography, minimally invasive breast biopsies, surgery, medical and radiation oncology services and support through our Nurse Navigator program. Accredited by the American College of Radiology (ACR), FSLH is proud to be the only Breast Imaging Center of Excellence in the Mohawk Valley and one of a few in the upstate region.
For hospitals and health systems, earning breast imaging accreditation is not easy. The ACR bases the designation on several factors and the healthcare facilities must pass rigorous, though voluntary, breast imaging accreditation programs and modules.
“As a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence, Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare operates under the highest quality of standards to diagnose breast cancer,” said Sean Whip, RT(R) CT, director of Medical Imaging at FSLH. “Our technologists have been trained by a world-renowned mammographer and our radiologists are the only physicians in the Mohawk Valley that have specialized advanced breast imaging training. Our staff is committed to providing exceptional care to our patients and our work to be named a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence demonstrates that.”
By awarding facilities the status of a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence, the ACR recognizes breast imaging centers that have earned accreditation in mammography, stereotactic breast biopsy and breast ultrasound (including ultrasound-guided breast biopsy). Peer-review evaluations, conducted in each breast imaging modality by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field, have determined that FSLH has achieved high practice standards in image quality, personnel qualifications, facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs.
For information about the Breast Care Program at The Regional Cancer Center please call (315) 624-5764 or ask your doctor for a referral.
