Health partnership hits road

Fewer than half of MGM Mirage's female workers have undergone a mammography or are getting them annually as recommended, a figure that executives want to increase over the next two months.

On Monday, MGM Mirage took its first step toward achieving that goal with its partnership with the Culinary Health Fund and the Nevada Cancer Institute. The partnership will make mammograms available at work through NVCI's new Hope Coach, a van equipped with mobile digital mammography.

The three hope to start a trend among Las Vegas businesses, officials said.

The 40-foot van, which looks like a fancy Winnebago, was unveiled Monday in Summerlin at the cancer institute.

The idea is to remove the barrier of women having to take time off work for screenings, said Sandra Murdock, NVCI's president and chief operating officer.

Annual mammograms are recommended for women age 40 and older.

About 25 percent of the 22,000 Culinary Health Fund members who should be getting annual mammograms have not had their first test, said Bobbette Bond, a health fund spokeswoman.

"We've got a lot of work to do to get them (women) into this van,'' she said. "The biggest barrier is fear.''

Bond said the health fund insures more than 300 women with breast cancer, including a 32-year-old woman.

Miriam Hammond, MGM Mirage's senior vice president of human resources, said the Hope Coach would be at MGM Grand until Nov. 2. She said female employees are encouraged to get a mammography, which is covered under the company's HMO plan.

The van will spend about two months at each of MGM Mirage's properties.

"This is a real commitment of ours,'' said Hammond, who received a mammography during a pilot run of the Hope Coach. She said the exam process took 20 minutes.

NVCI officials said the Hope Coach is a convenient way for employers to help their workers in preventive medicine.

NVCI would like to reach out to all businesses in the Las Vegas Valley as well as the state.

In Nevada, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer among women. If detected early, health officials said, roughly 95 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer will survive.

Mammograms, X-rays of the breast, can detect 85 percent of breast cancers and at an average of one to three years before a woman can feel the lump.

Cheryl Martin, NVCI's chief nursing executive, said roughly 70 percent of Nevada women eligible for a mammography are getting them.

The national average is 75 percent.

"We would like to exceed 75 percent,'' Martin said.