Enable Me, a VELA Medical company, today urged America’s more than 50 million caregivers to remember on Mother’s Day, May 12, and every day to ask for a seated mammogram for their mother if she is at risk of falling or fainting during the traditional standing mammogram.

“We believe all 8,834 accredited mammography facilities in the U.S. are tirelessly dedicated to patient safety,” said Mike Laky, President of Enable Me, a national leader in safe-seated mammography technology. “But as they would in all healthcare settings, attentive caregivers must speak up if they believe the standing mammography procedure poses a fall risk to their mother, wife, or other woman for whom they provide care.”

While falls from standing mammograms are rare, they can result in severe injury for the patient and often the mammographer, and can generate costly litigation and reputational damage.

CALMED A COMBATIVE CAREGIVER

The director of radiology for a midwestern healthcare system cited an incident in which a disabled woman’s adult son became combative as he sensed her discomfort and anxiety when the radiologist began positioning his mother for a standing procedure.

“We rolled out the mammography chair, seated her, and he relaxed and smiled,” the radiologist said. “It calmed all his fears about her being uncomfortable or falling.”

CLEARER IMAGING

Her facility has the VELA Mammography Chair, which, in addition to helping to eliminate falls, can assist in providing a clearer image and reduce the need for a retake or the trauma of a dreaded false positive.

Because the mammography chair can be rolled into place, raised and lowered electrically, and its wheels securely locked, the appliance also reduces stressors and injury to the mammographer’s wrists, shoulders, back, and knees, helping to create a healthy workplace and improve employee retention.

REDUCED FUTURE ANXIETY

Laky observed that safe-seated mammography is becoming the trend for its many benefits to the patient, the technologist, and the facility, and now its benefits have extended to caregivers who can be assured their mother or other loved one’s procedure will be safe, secure, comfortable, and relaxing, thus reducing their anxiety about regular future screenings.

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