St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities | Breast Health Collaborative of Texas

Breast Health Resource Mapping Project
A joint project with The Breast Health Collaborative of Texas

Welcome to the Breast Health Resource Mapping Project. This project was developed in partnership with the Breast Health Collaborative of Texas to help improve access to breast health services for the underserved and uninsured. This unique tool provides users with a single resource offering current and free health access information for breast health services and offers interactive mapping capabilities. The website helps individual users and case managers locate breast health treatment and diagnostic services including safety-net clinics. Users can locate services, view hours of operation, languages spoken and financial/eligibility requirements. In addition, the mapping capabilities of the website allow health planners to prioritize and identify underserved areas where there is insufficient capacity and help to determine expansion potential.

History:
In April 2005, St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities (the Charities) presented its concept of an interactive Internet-based breast health resource website to the first Annual Greater Houston Area Breast Health Summit. The Summit, co-sponsored by The Rose and the Houston Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure brought together more than 140 breast healthcare providers, physicians, social services representatives, community members and survivors for the purpose of improving access to breast health care, particularly for low income and uninsured clients.

Summit attendees and leaders embraced the Charities’ concept for an interactive web-based community resource focused on breast health. The summit attendees and leaders have since formed The Breast Health Collaborative of Texas.

Capabilities:
The Breast Health Resource Mapping Project is modeled after the Charities successful Project Safety Net website. Project Safety Net (PSN), endorsed by the Harris County Public Healthcare System Council, locates and maps all safety net clinics in Harris County and can be viewed at www.projectsafetynet.net. The Breast Health Resource Mapping Project is similar to PSN but focuses only on breast health resources.

Geographic Areas:
The geographic scope of this project covers the eight-county Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA), which includes Chambers, Fort Bend, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Waller, Galveston, and Brazoria Counties. Maps can be retrieved using many different levels of analysis, including:

County level (includes major highways)
Zip Code (includes major highways and secondary roads)
Census tracts (includes major highways and secondary roads)
State Representative and State Senator Districts (includes major highways and secondary roads)
City Council boundaries for Houston
County Commissioner boundaries for Harris County

Data:
Demographic data include population and uninsured data as well as breast cancer incidence data. City clinics, county clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, Hospital District services, and private non-profits are included.

Next Steps:
This initial project phase includes the Houston Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s grantees and members of the Breast Health Collaborative of Texas. Other non-profit breast health providers within Harris and the surrounding eight county CMSA may call to receive information about joining.

For more information about the Breast Health Collaborative of Texas – Resource Mapping Project, call St. Luke’s Episcopal Health Charities at (832) 355-4984 or email to cmeyer@sleh.com.