LIMA—St. Rita’s Women’s Wellness Center (WWC) has been featured as a best practice in osteoporosis screenings in a GE Healthcare White Paper sent to General Electric (GE) clients and customers worldwide.

According to the publication, St. Rita’s WWC “actively pursues their mission to provide their community access to quality care.”

Ten years ago GE featured the initial start-up of the Bone Mineral Density (BMD) Outreach program. Osteoporosis is a major health issue affecting 55 percent of Americans over 50. With the aging population, the number of hip fractures is predicted to quadruple in the next 40 years.

The evolution and growth of the program included use in various locations and the mobile health van. With positive growth in both the number of units available, the number of people receiving the screening and the education and cooperation of physician, the scans are up 160 percent from the initial efforts 10 years ago.

GE concluded its article by saying “St. Rita’s innovative BMD testing model and its continuing refinements attests to its commitment to serving the community by providing accessible quality care. Their active management has and will continue to deliver them a successful BMD program that reaches more and more people at risk for this growing disease.”