Opening More Doors for Patients
Patients are getting in sooner thanks to cross-lake teamwork.
Keele Kozak, a teacher from Middlebury, wasn’t facing a medical scare. She was simply doing what every woman is encouraged to do: get her routine mammogram.
But a surge in demand at University of Vermont Health – Porter Medical Center meant she’d have to wait months. The team offered another option that could see her immediately: UVM Health – Elizabethtown Community Hospital.
Two days later, she received her results in MyChart and moved on with her life knowing there were no signs of cancer.
They told me they could see me the next day. It was so quick. That was huge for me.
Collaboration That Cuts the Wait
Even a routine mammogram can carry emotional weight.
“What if it’s not routine? What if it’s the first sign of breast cancer?” Kozak asks.
“We know patients can feel that anxiety, and it’s frustrating when we can’t get everyone in immediately,” adds Michelle Aines, a certified mammography technologist and radiology director at Porter Medical Center. Demand for breast screenings jumped 44% at the Middlebury hospital from 2022 to 2024. While more screenings can mean catching cancer earlier, Aines was concerned about the growing backlog.
To help patients get answers sooner, the hospital shifted its schedule to prioritize diagnostic screenings, which are ordered when a patient has a symptom or when a routine screening detects a potential area of concern. Porter Medical Center also tapped into system-wide radiologist support. And through ongoing coordination with colleagues at Elizabethtown and Ticonderoga, Aines knew they had openings for earlier appointments.
“If we’ve got this need, and they’ve got the availability, why not?” Aines says. “I really love that about our health system. We can share capacity and make sure patients get in the door.”
The teams built a cross-lake partnership that gets women screened faster and eases the stress of waiting. Porter Medical Center staff can now connect patients directly with Elizabethtown or Ticonderoga if they’re willing to travel. With a doctor’s order, patients can even self-schedule through MyChart, the secure patient portal.
“If people are willing to travel, we are happy to take anybody,” says Brenda Sypek-Potthast, a certified CT technologist and radiology supervisor at the hospital in Ticonderoga. “It always comes down to what works best for the patient.”
The collaboration is having a big impact: The number of Vermonters traveling to Ticonderoga for a mammogram quadrupled from 2024 to 2025, and Elizabethtown saw a similar shift — doubling its number of Vermont patients during that same period.
“If I could have been seen within two months, I would’ve been ecstatic. Going in a matter of days was really meaningful,” says Kozak.
Seamless Technology, Faster Answers
Whether a patient is screened in Middlebury, Elizabethtown or Ticonderoga, the care team sees the same high-quality images and clinical details.
“We all have the same equipment. It’s all the same technology,” Aines says. “You’re getting the same study wherever you go.”
“It’s like the push of a button,” adds Jan Vize, a radiology technician at Elizabethtown Community Hospital. “Years ago, patients waited weeks for prior images to arrive. Now, those files move almost instantly.”
That consistency matters, Sypek-Potthast says, “especially when patients are already anxious about a callback or further testing.”
With shared imaging systems, radiologists across UVM Health can read each other’s studies, compare prior images and deliver faster interpretations, no matter where the mammogram happens.
For patients, that means fewer delays and fewer sleepless nights. And for clinicians, it means they can act quickly, together, to give patients clear answers.
MyChart
MyChart is your personalized patient portal. Through MyChart, you can communicate with your health care team, request appointments, view test results, request prescription renewals, pay your bill and more.
What Patients Should Know
You can schedule at any UVM Health hospital with an opening — your images and results flow automatically to your primary care.
Elizabethtown Community Hospital in Elizabethtown and Ticonderoga currently have availability for screening and diagnostic mammograms. Same- or next-day slots are often possible.
If you’re called back, Elizabethtown Community Hospital coordinates quickly with regional centers for ultrasounds and biopsies.
If appointments are far out where you usually go, ask about openings at Elizabethtown or Ticonderoga. As Kozak learned, a short drive can sometimes save months of waiting — and get you answers fast.
