St. Anthony offering pampering for corporate mammogram days

By Jim Stafford

Published: August 5, 2008

One day last spring a group of female employees at Chesapeake Energy Corp. piled into an SUV during work hours and were driven to St. Anthony Hospital.

It wasn't girls' day out.

It was Mammography Day at Chesapeake, a one-day event offered to the city's corporate community by the Breast Center at St. Anthony.

Before the day was done, more than 50 Chesapeake employees had been chauffeured to St. Anthony, had a critical health examination completed and were back at work in less than two hours.

Chesapeake is one of four Oklahoma City companies to participate in the unique corporate health screening in which employees are taken en masse to the examination site and returned to work when it is completed without having to take time off from the job.

"Our goal is to try to get them here to our campus and get their exams done and results to them and back to their workplace in about an hour and a half,” said Elain Richardson, division director of oncology and neurosciences at St. Anthony.

The women are pampered just a bit during the process. St. Anthony offers refreshments to the Mammography Day participants, as well as manicures or massages while they awaited their turn.

"It's a valuable service to women,” Richardson said. "We've had women say that if you hadn't made it (available) through work and made it so easy, I would have put it off. We've gotten very positive feedback so far.”

In fact, each of the four corporate clients has signed up as repeat customers, making it an annual workplace event, Richardson said.

Chesapeake participates in the event to make the cancer screening as easy as possible for employees, said Toni Parks-Payne, director of the energy corporation's fitness center.

"It saves time,” Parks-Payne said. "In fact, they don't have to drive anywhere; St. Anthony picks them up. They knock it out over the lunch hour and come back and drop them off at the same place. It really saves time and is easy for them to access it.”

Breast exams for Chesapeake employees are paid for through their individual health insurance policies, Parks-Payne said. Next spring's event will be the company's third year of participation.

"I would say that convenience is the No. 1 benefit of the program,” she said. "They don't have to pay for gas or worry about the parking space or driving.”

Oklahoma Blood Institute held its annual Mammography Day in late June with almost 50 women participating. Not only did Human Resources Benefits Manager Jacki Riddle coordinate the event for OBI, she was among those who had the exam done.

"It was my very first one; I turned 40 last year,” Riddle said. "I was scared to death, but the experience I had was so wonderful it's not even funny.”

Health experts recommend annual mammograms for women age 40 and over. The combination of convenience and peer pressure from colleagues at work help drive participation, she said.

Riddle read a note she received from an OBI employee after the Mammography Day event was completed.

"She just ‘wanted to say thanks for arranging the mammogram event today. It was an awesome experience. St. Anthony has their act together with this service. I would probably not go without making it so convenient and allowing us to leave work for a few minutes. Thanks for your effort.”

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