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Mercy Springfield’s pink mammography bus is about to head to its new home in Joplin as a new mammography bus gets unveiled today at a special ribbon cutting at Wilson Logistics.
This is Mercy Springfield’s third mobile mammography bus. The first arrived in 2001 when it became clear barriers were keeping women from getting lifesaving annual mammograms. "For some women, it might be difficult to take time off work, or they might not have transportation,” said Dr. Amy Soetaert, breast radiologist and medical director of Mercy Breast Center. “We hope the mammography bus will remove those barriers and make getting screening mammograms more convenient for our patients.”
Since launching the program in 2001, more than 50,000 mammograms have been completed on the bus. In 2023 alone, 16 patients were subsequently diagnosed with breast cancer after getting their annual mammogram done on the bus. “This service is truly saving lives,” Dr. Soetaert said. “We are so thankful our community sees the impact this bus makes and is willing to help us keep the bus on the road.”
In order to extend the life of the current mammography bus, it is being sent to Mercy Joplin, where it will cover a smaller territory and continue to bring 3D mammography services to patients in that community. At Mercy Springfield, the mammography bus provides care to 15 communities including Ava, Branson, Branson West, Hermitage, Lockwood, Marshfield, Mountain Grove, Nixa, Ozark, Republic, Rogersville, Seymour, Shell Knob and Strafford.
Within that territory, the bus visits 17 employers including Springfield Public Schools, the City of Springfield, Paul Mueller Company, Bass Pro Shops and O’Reilly Automotive to name a few. The bus is on the road four to five days a week, and it can see about 22 patients a day. Because the bus covers such a large territory, it’s typically booked 30 to 90 days out.
The new $1.2 million bus is expected to serve patients over the next decade. Funding was provided by Mercy Springfield Foundation, which raised funds at its annual Colors of Hope Gala last year, along with a $10,000 donation from Women with a Mission and a generous lead donation from Wilson Logistics.
“We are proud to support Mercy’s new mobile mammography bus,” said Darrel Wilson, founder and CEO of Wilson Logistics. “Prioritizing our community’s health and safety is a core value of our culture at Wilson Logistics, and we take a lot of pride knowing that through this donation, we’re helping to bring much-needed preventive care to patients.”
The new bus will be unveiled today at Wilson Logistics at a special ribbon cutting that honored all those who helped get the new mammography bus on the road.
