Mission at the heart of breast imaging care at Denver Health

After nearly 30 years at Denver Health, Susan Harrison is still in love with the mission to care for all that inspired her to start working here in 1994.

“I have never looked for another job,” said the diagnostic imaging supervisor for Breast Imaging.

Harrison is celebrating the recent success of the department’s first employee screening days, which offered Denver Health employees walk-in appointments on a pair of Fridays to get a screening mammogram at the clinic on the fifth floor of the Outpatient Medical Center. Nearly 100 employees signed up and were screened on those two days in June and July. The department hopes to do more in the coming months.

“Employees have other options besides Denver Health to get their care,” Harrison said. “By making it more convenient for them so they can work around their schedule instead of being locked into our schedule and availability, I hope they will appreciate that and choose to continue to be seen here. I did a mammogram on an employee that day that only came here to get her mammogram. She stated that she was so impressed with our efficiency, that she might consider transferring all her care to Denver Health.”

Harrison calls our Breast Imaging department the “best in the region” because of our state-of-the-art equipment and caring staff.

“We want every patient to feel like a star when they are in our department,” she said. “I hope that it is evident that that we care about all patients and want to give them the best care that we are able, no matter what their walk of life.”

She pointed to a patient she treated who had an extensive history of abuse and was fearful of coming to her appointments. Harrison made special arrangements for her to come at a time that was convenient for her and allowed her primary care physician to be there for support. On July 11, 2024, Harrison will celebrate her 30-year anniversary at Denver Health. She moved to Denver after graduating college in Oklahoma in 1993 to be closer to her two brothers. She said her career path in breast imaging “chose her” after she started cross-training as a technologist in mammography. Harrison soon became lead technologist and now holds a supervisor position.

“I love breast imaging because we can follow patients during their journey through a breast cancer diagnosis,” she said. “It’s not just a ‘one and done.’”

She said Denver Health has allowed her to use her experience and leadership skills to mentor other technologists. When she’s not working, Harrison enjoys spending time with her husband and her son, who just started college. She loves to travel and said when she does retire, she looks forward to spending more time doing that.

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Mark your calendars

Join the Denver Health Breast Imaging and Mobile Health Center teams for the Komen More Than Pink Walk at 9 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 8, at Civic Center Park in Denver. Denver Health is a sponsor of the walk and is gathering a team of walkers together to support our shared mission to end breast cancer. Registration for the 2-mile walk is free, and employees are encouraged to join the Denver Health team. If you wish to raise money, you may set a goal and fundraise. Those who register with the Denver Health team by Sept. 7 and show up for the walk will get a Denver Health Breast Imaging T-shirt. Separately, Komen is offering its own T-shirts to anyone who raises at least $100. The Denver Health team’s goal is to raise at least $1,000.

Learn about Breast Imaging leader’s approach to care

Denver Health Chief of Breast Imaging Randy Miles, MD, MPH, recently went on a podcast, “Breast Practices,” to discuss approaches to treating patients with empathy, what patients need to know to advocate for their own best care, and how to cope with a breast cancer diagnosis. He also revealed his personal story of how his family history inspired him to go into breast imaging.