Editorial: Better access needed

Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006 | 7:28 a.m.

A new federal report says that during a recent three-year period, mammography facilities closed more often than new ones opened to replace them, fueling concerns that there may not be enough of the centers to meet future test demands.

The Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday says that from 2001 to 2004 the nation sustained a net loss of 538 facilities - or 6 percent of the overall number of clinics typically available.

The costs of operating such facilities was the reason most often cited for the closures, the GAO reports. But experts also said that there is an ongoing difficulty in recruiting and retaining the radiological technicians who perform the tests and the doctors who read them.

The losses have occurred at a time when the number of women seeking mammograms increased - mostly because of an increase in the number of women age 40 and older in the U.S. population. Women typically receive their first, or "baseline," mammogram at age 40.

And as the Baby Boom generation ages, more women are seeking the tests. The youngest Baby Boomers turned 40 in 2004, the final year of the GAO's study. For now, there are enough machines to serve them, the GAO reports.

Future needs might not be met, however, if the industry doesn't find ways of attracting the technicians and doctors it needs and of getting costs to a point at which these centers can remain open. About a quarter of the nation's counties had no mammography machines in 2004, the GAO reports. Women in those communities had to travel to other areas.

For poor women without health insurance or those who could not make such trips, mammograms were inaccessible. And if demand continues to rise as expected, even women who have health insurance and the means to travel likely will have to wait several months for appointments.

When used in conjunction with an appropriate treatment regimen, early detection of breast cancer tumors through mammograms can increase a woman's chances for survival. But first, women need to have access to the machines and to a doctor who can analyze the test results.