An audit released Wednesday by Comptroller John Liu reported that at some

An audit released Wednesday by Comptroller John Liu reported that at some facilities run by New York City’s Health and Hospital Corporations, the time between available mammogram screening appointments surpasses the national standard of 30 days of waiting time, and registers far above the City’s target performance of 14 days. Instead, the report highlighted waiting times between screenings at these facilities that were treacherously high, ranging from 41 to 148 working days.

However, HHC spokeswoman Ana Marengo said the Liu report fails to mention that though this was a problem initially, the issue has been remedied since the auditors began their investigation two months ago.

The HHC includes 11 hospitals, four nursing facilities, six diagnostic treatment centers, and more than 80 community clinics. Of the 11 hospitals run by HHC, auditors visited nine facilities in 2009 in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. The review found that at that time, though radiologists were reading and reporting the results of mammograms efficiently, the waiting time between screenings was too high at three of the nine hospitals visited: Queens Hospital, Elmhurst Hospital, and Woodhull Hospital.

The audit said that in the case of diagnostic mammograms ordered by doctors concerned about patient health, as opposed to the routine screening, there was also a dangerous delay. Though the 2009 waiting times were lower for diagnostic mammograms than for screening mammograms, the audit still reported them above the 14-day target level at five of the nine investigated hospitals.

Liu’s auditors concluded with recommendations for HHC, including a suggestion for the corporation to perform a comprehensive review of current screening services’ ability to accommodate all patients. A brief addendum from HHC accompanied the 2011 report and explained that a reevaluation of the services had already been implemented.

At the time, Queens and Elmhurst Hospital officials attributed their high waiting times to concurrent hospital closures and budget cuts that left them overwhelmed and under-staffed. These hospitals not only had the highest wait times, they also conducted the most mammograms of any HHC run facilities during the fiscal year of 2009.

In recent years, HHC has been struggling in the changing health landscape and tumultuous economy. As patients to cope with the lingering impact of a prolonged recession, their use of free HHC services raises the Corporations’ costs. According to HHC, of the 1.3 million patients served last year, 452,576 were uninsured, a 14 percent increase since 2004. The HHC also made $330 million in budget cuts last year.

However, despite these consistent fiscal difficulties, Marengo says HHC continues to offer services to all of their patients safely and in a timely manner. “We absolutely refute their conclusion that there are any dangerous delays for patients,” she explained in an email.

“We are disappointed that the Comptroller’s report fails to capture the current state of mammography screening wait times at HHC,” she writes. “The auditors spent nearly 18 months reviewing data from fiscal year 2009 and in their press statements chose to ignore the more recent data made available to them, which shows the significant improvements HHC has made over the last two years.”

According to Marengo, currently there are no delays in cases where a doctor or medical provider has determined that a mammogram is needed immediately. “Patients with a lump or other negative findings can receive a diagnostic mammogram within 24 to 72 hours,” she wrote. “And, at least seven of our hospitals have a zero to one-day wait time for a screening mammogram today. That means the great majority of HHC patients are able to receive mammography within the 14-day target, even some on the same day of request.”

Timely mammograms are important. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, these screenings can reduce breast cancer mortality in women 17 to 30 percent.

via Michele Narov, City Limits