Dorothy: [00:00:00] Nobody wants to hear from Dr. Popp if they haven’t shown up for their appointment. That’s the level of accountability she holds her patients to. But it’s for the good of the patient and for the community. During this episode, you’ll hear Dr. Popp talk about her long time Partnership with the Rose, as well as misconceptions about the uninsured and why it’s important to hold patients accountable.
She’s also going to speak on her experience as a nun and why she calls herself the home missionary. Help us share the mission of the Rose by subscribing to Let’s Talk About Your Breast on your favorite podcast platform and by sharing with your family and friends.
Let’s talk about your breast, a different kind of podcast presented to you by the Rose, the Breast Center of Excellence, and a Texas treasure. You’re going to hear frank discussions about tough topics, and you’re going to learn why knowing about your breast could save your life.[00:01:00]
Tell us how long you have been in health care.
Dr. Popp: Well, I’ve been in some aspect of health care almost my whole life. Uh, I started as, as a young person in, in, uh, nursing and then in, uh, I went to medical school in the 1990s and started practicing medicine in the late 90s and through the years of 2000. Oh, and where did you go to school?
I went to medical school at, uh, uh, UT San Antonio and I did my residency and family practice at the McClellan Family Residency Center in Waco, Texas.
Dorothy: And you were telling me earlier about how long we have worked together. I think you had a better idea of it than I did. So how long have you been working with the Rose?
Dr. Popp: Well, I came back to Houston in 2000 with the Dream of adding family practice to a, a clinic that our, Health care institution Christus already had open. Uh, it was in the Gulfton area of Houston and I opened family practice services there in, [00:02:00] uh, 2001 of Jan— in January. And of course one of my first things to do was to start preventive care and I learned about The Rose and the work that you all do for preventive care.
So I immediately looked how to partner with you. So we’ve been partnering for 23 years.
Dorothy: I keep thinking that, uh, that wasn’t very long after we had opened, uh, totally, you know, so you were really there at our beginning.
Dr. Popp: Well, we heard about your program for the uninsured, and, uh, at that time you had no mobile units, so we had maps for people to come, we helped people fill out forms and helped them get to your clinic or to your imaging center so that they could get their mammograms done.
And we’ve always had a great working relationship because you all communicated with us. We were able to work out, uh, plans for our patients and, and most importantly, aftercare if that was needed. So that was always important for us. So we felt like it’s always been a positive relationship over all these years.
Dorothy: Oh, yes. Yes. Tell us about the St. Mary’s now. What type of [00:03:00] population are you working with? And Just tell it, give us a little overview, profile of your patients.
Dr. Popp: Christus St. Mary’s Clinic is a, uh, a ministry clinic of our larger healthcare institution, which is Christus Health. And it’s sponsored by our Foundation for Healthcare in Houston.
It’s located in the East End, and its main service area is the East End. And then populations all around who are either uninsured or have no other access to health services. Uh, we’re located in the East End of Houston. And, um, Our clinic specially, I say, we take care of the people that fall in the cracks.
They don’t qualify for any federal services, any community services, any local services. They are literally the uninsured for whatever reason and they need, they need our services. So, um, we provide access and we provide affordable health care.
Dorothy: And you serve men, women, and children.
Dr. Popp: Yes, we don’t do many children because there, there are other clinics in our area that serve [00:04:00] children.
So we, we mostly do adults who otherwise wouldn’t have access to primary health care, either preventative or, you know, uh, disease modifying health care.
Dorothy: And there isn’t anything for those that fall through the crack.
Dr. Popp: There isn’t. It really, it’s one of the populations that are really uninserved. And we also see a lot of people outside of Harris County because there is no health care for the uninsured outside of Harris County.
So we see a lot of people from the surrounding counties. We have people, and you probably see them here at your mobile unit, that Drive from Cleveland or Cypress or Katie or Alvin that live outside of the the service area of of Harris County and we serve a lot of those people because there just isn’t any other place to go.
Dorothy: There isn’t. So tell us some misconceptions that people have about the poor. And I’m using that term very, you know, generally.
Dr. Popp: So I think I’m going to use the word uninsured because that’s the general, those are the people that generally [00:05:00] have the most difficulty receiving health care, uh, for whatever reason they’re uninsured.
Dorothy: Okay.
Dr. Popp: I think misconceptions are that people don’t make health care a priority. Um, I think there, there is, they have to prioritize paying rent and they have to prioritize giving food. But, When given the opportunity and access people really are interested in their health, you know And I think breast cancer screening is a perfect example when we’re able to offer low cost or free mammography to people You know, we have a waiting list.
It’s not like people say no, I don’t really want to do it That’s like no, I do want to do it, but I can’t afford it or I don’t know where to go or you know There are all these barriers for them to get it So, breaking down the barriers by, by providing, uh, affordable and accessible prevention is, is great.
So, I think one of the myths is, is that people are not, um, that’s not a priority or they don’t really care about their health. [00:06:00] But, that’s not true. We don’t, we don’t see that at
all.
Dorothy: I hear that all the time. You know, oh well. Those people, you know, they’re, they’re spending money on everything else. It’s like there is no money to spend.
Dr. Popp: That’s true.
Dorothy: And I’m going, how do you think folks live these days? It’s so hard.
Dr. Popp: Well, you know, we’re finding most, many people have trouble paying their rent or with the food prices going up, they’re having to put more money on their food. Um, so again, as part of our clinic, you know, because our clinic is focused not only on Giving medicines and health.
It’s it’s for the bigger purpose of health. So we help people find food. We help people find housing But that’s all part of being able to provide health care for a person And again preventive health is something that goes by the wayside first because it’s not a have to.
Dorothy: It’s not a have to, no.
Dr. Popp: You know, it’s like, I have to pay my rent, I have to buy food, I might have to get my medicine for diabetes if I can, and then I’ll look at cancer [00:07:00] screening.
Because I can live without that, even though it may be detrimental to my health in the long run.
Dorothy: So you have no problem convincing them.
Dr. Popp: No, absolutely not. I mean, sometimes there’s the usual qualms of like, well, is it going to hurt? Or, you know, where do I have to go? Or, you know, my friend said, this is terrible or, you know, things like that.
But the general thing is, you know, where can I sign up?
Dorothy: Wow.
Dr. Popp: You know, it’s like, you know, we have a, we, as you know, we have a process, uh, and a person who helps people access the system, which makes your job easier and makes us, uh, be able to make sure people get that service that they need. So, but, you know, we don’t have any trouble of saying, go see the health coordinator, let her help you sign up, and that usually happens the same day we, we write the order.
Dorothy: So, Dr. Popp, your way to, uh, Modest because here’s here’s the truth about your services and your clinic and and everything that you do. This is our number one referring Uh, partner, [00:08:00] especially on our mobile, on our mobile, absolutely. And you almost always have a hunDred percent show. Now, in healthcare, that’s a big deal.
It doesn’t matter, insured, uninsured, you always deal with, with no shows. And at, but at your clinic, we, we go there prepared because we know it’s going to be the day that I was there, I did not realize how many times you touch that patient. Tell them to go get signed up, and then they get another call, a reminder.
Someone said even 20 minutes before they’re supposed to be there, if they haven’t shown up, they’re getting a call.
Dr. Popp: That’s right, that’s true, yes.
Dorothy: That is amazing. I mean, people just, you know, we just don’t take that kind of time with folks. Usually to remind them and remind them and remind them.
Dr. Popp: Well, well, it’s kind of interesting because, um, we take this seriously, and we, we tell the women that, you know, if you miss two appointments, you’ve lost your opportunity because so many people want this opportunity.
Because remember, you’re giving two things. [00:09:00] You’re giving Access and you’re giving affordability and we take that really seriously. We take your time. Seriously, you know I I think it would be an insult for for you the mobile unit to come out and I only have five people show up I mean you’re wasting your time and your resources and that’s not good Um, you know, and we also want our women to be accountable um, and I think the thing about the calls is that people don’t realize that Well, sometimes you can come 20 minutes late and that’s okay.
But with, you know, because you are on a schedule, that’s not okay. And so, one of my staff members has taken it on her. We didn’t actually tell her to do this. She said, this is so important. If they’re not here by a certain time, I’m going to call them and tell them, now remember, you’re going to lose your spot if you don’t show up in time.
And then they will tell her, well, my car doesn’t work or, you know, I’m stuck in traffic. So we have an idea of why and how long they’re going to be late. But, you know, the staff at the clinic take it seriously. [00:10:00] And that rubs off on the people that are coming as well. I mean, they know this is serious. They know that this is their opportunity and they don’t want to lose it. So—
Dorothy: And I heard someone say, I think it was one of your patients, say, well, you know, you don’t want to hear from Dr. Popp if you don’t show up because you’re going to be fussed at. And I thought, well, yeah, that’s, that’s Dr. Popp.
Dr. Popp: Well, we want them to be accountable. I mean, you know, it’s like, this is a free service.
But, you know, you be respectful, you show up on time, you know, those are things you can control and you can do, so, you know, we, that’s part of being respectful of, of the people who are helping you.
Dorothy: And I remember that, uh, one day I was talking to you about our stage fours.
Dr. Popp: Oh yes, oh yes.
Dorothy: And you said: I know some of those patients were mine.
Dr. Popp: Well, when, yeah, when I read the report, um, your, your annual report, I was looking through it and, you know, just seeing all the information and then you had the statistic [00:11:00] about in the last seven years, I think, Uh, every person that came here with a stage four breast cancer was uninsured. And it was like, whoa, that’s nuts.
That’s a telling statistic. That means we really need to work on what we do. You know, because that’s where they came from. And, and two of those I know came from our clinic. And the women were like, well, why didn’t you go? I mean, you kind of should have noticed this before. You know, it’s like, how can you not notice that you’ve got this?
You know, abnormality and, and it was like, well, I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t have time to take off from work or, you know, it wasn’t, I was scared. It was opportunity and access.
Dorothy: Interesting.
Dr. Popp: It was the two things and I’m sure it’s, you know, scared, but I mean, it was like I, you know, I didn’t know where to go.
I didn’t afford, I couldn’t take off from my job to go find out, you know, go to a doctor, make an appointment, you know, uh, and I think one of the nice things about. What y’all do in our mobile unit is if I tell you the person, [00:12:00] if I tell the ladies that your appointment’s at 2 o’clock, I said, you be there at 2 o’clock, you’re gonna have your mammogram and in a half hour you’re gone.
So you just take off that part of work, you don’t have to spend a whole day, you know, looking and waiting. You’re gonna, you’re gonna be served and, and it’s time.
Dorothy: And that’s not uncommon for people who are uninsured. Many times they do wait all day long for something.
Dr. Popp: And many times they can’t take off from their job, so if they know there’s this circumscribed time For their job, then it, it works.
And I have to tell you there, um, there was a couple of times not too long ago that something happened in one of the mobile units and the, the, it was a, it was like, well, what do you mean? It’s like, wait a minute, we’re here. We, it was like, we want our mammograms. Where are they? And we said, well, I’m sorry the machine broke down.
It was like, and they were, you know, it was like, darn so
Dorothy: End of the world.
Dr. Popp: Yes.
Dorothy: Yes.
Dr. Popp: Yes.
Dorothy: Yes.
Dr. Popp: I mean, I’ve been waiting for this. You know, and I said, well, now, did they reschedule? Well, yes, and like, okay, that happens [00:13:00] sometimes with machines.
Dorothy: I will tell you, we’ve learned more about mobile units and generators and all the things.
Dr. Popp: Well, I admire the women Driving those big old mobile vans.
Dorothy: Oh, yes.
Dr. Popp: That’s no easy feat.
Dorothy: That is no easy feat. So, uh, besides being a doctor, you’re also a Sister.
Dr. Popp: Yes.
Dorothy: And you’ve been a Sister for how long?
Dr. Popp: A long time. A long time. A long time. Uh, long enough to be seasoned. A long enough to be a woman who is, who is teaching the next generation.
How to be missionaries, how to be, how to serve.
Dorothy: And what was your favorite missionary outing adventure?
Dr. Popp: Oh, I think, well, I mean, um, I haven’t had a whole lot of assignments. I mean, as far as in health care, I mean, I’ve, I’ve made some forays in our, in our missionary countries. I haven’t been assigned there.
Uh, oh, I think definitely what I’m doing now is, is the best. I mean, it’s, [00:14:00] whether I was in Gulfton area or here, I mean, I think, you know, I call myself the home missionary. You know, there’s people in our backyard. I don’t have to go to our missions in Kenya or in Guatemala to be serving those who otherwise don’t get health care.
And again, when we define health care, it’s, it’s. The needs of the whole person, whether it’s counseling, whether it’s finding them food, whether it’s buying a wheelchair, or making sure they get a mammogram. It’s all part of being of service and also part of, of making sure people are healthy.
Dorothy: Now, you can’t do much else if you’re not healthy.
Dr. Popp: Nope. And you can’t, uh, yeah, and I, you know, people will say that. I said, if you don’t have, if, I use, that’s my favorite phrase, especially for my non compliant patients. If you don’t have your health, it’s not, you know, the rest doesn’t really matter, because you can’t, you can’t enjoy it or, or do it.
Dorothy: So, speak to us, or speak to the Spanish speaking population that are listening, and tell us three things that you try to tell your women any time, whether it has to do with mammograms or health or, but I’m wanting you to, [00:15:00] To go ahead and, and speak to them.
Dr. Popp: In english or Spanish?
Dorothy: Spanish.
Dr. Popp: Oh. Um, Yo quiero decir a las personas que hablan español que, um, siempre está cuadando a otras personas, pero una cosa que tiene que hacer, es que tiene que cuidarse a su propio mismo. Porque si no está, no está cuidando su propio mismo, no puede cuidar las otras. Y, tambien, usted, you know, siempre está cuidando a otras, y tiene que buscar maneras para cuidar a su propio mismo.
y hay lugares donde pueden tener sus estudios. Como el Papanicolaou, o otros estudios para mamografías. y hay lugares donde pueden recibirlos a un costo bajo o gratis. So, Aquí, en la clinica Rose, es uno de esos lugares . Y si tiene Interés hablen con ellos, o con unas personas que [00:16:00] puedan ayudarlos.
Dorothy: Now tell me what you said.
Dr. Popp: I said that, uh, the women always take care of somebody else before they take care of each other. So they need to put their own health, uh, be able to take care of themselves. And I said that there are places there that you can go to get, uh, low cost health care, whether it’s mammograms or pap smears or whatever.
And if you don’t know where to go, you can Talk to someone who’s listening to this podcast and to, to help you find where you can go to get the services.
Dorothy: Isn’t that interesting? It doesn’t matter what, uh, race, language, women always put themselves last.
Dr. Popp: And we get, we get a lot of women who come in and say, you haven’t had a mammogram for 10 years, why not?
Well, I stopped and they’re saying in Spanish, I’ve been caring for other people. I’ve had, you know, my kids or my gram or my grandparents or my parents or my in laws or whoever. I’ve been caring for all of those and now there seem to be settled and now I can take care of myself.
Dorothy: Yeah, that is, over and over we hear that story.
Dr. Popp: [00:17:00] The other story is the working woman, you know, they don’t have time. It’s, you know, I can’t afford to leave my job. I can’t afford to, to, to take time off to take care of myself. Um, that’s probably the other big, um, obstacle for women is, you know, especially if they’re the sole breadwinners. They say, I just can’t take off.
Dorothy: And, you know, unfortunately we find that in our school districts, in our business areas, You know, the women that come, that we take the mobile, and they have their mammogram on the Mammo, uh, coaches will tell us invariably, I wouldn’t have had it done this year. I just didn’t have time. I couldn’t take off work.
You know, there’s something very wrong with a society that doesn’t let you take off work. for a basic health need, or that we’ve become so fearful that we might be, you know, uh, put our job in jeopardy by taking off, there, that just, just amazes me. But it’s in insured and uninsured populations. So that is why any kind of mobile services has become such [00:18:00] a, a need in serving women.
Dr. Popp: Healthcare, especially in the state of Texas, has never been a priority, um, you know, um, You know, we’re, we’re one of the highest states and counties for the uninsured. Um, our, our services, people that are insured, um, maybe not commercial insurances as much as some of the state sponsored insurances, are so poor that people don’t really have a lot of access when they do.
And, you know, a lot of people Unfortunately, and, and it’s, you know, I guess it’s a bit of both and because, you know, if I have my employees, I don’t want to be taken off every other day to go to the doctor because I need them working for me as well. So it’s kind of like there’s no real partnership between employer and employee to make sure that both needs be met at the same time.
You know, how can we, how can we keep you on the job and how can we make sure you get your health care at the same time? I think, you know, jobs. aren’t like that [00:19:00] anymore. There’s not much, not much, um, family sort of aspect to it, to where they really, anybody cares about what happens.
Dorothy: Now you covered some other issues there too. And you’re, when you talk about the state, especially, you know, all of the insurance issues that we have here in the state of Texas, you know, really a woman cannot be, uh, get on Medicaid. Unless she’s pregnant, just had the baby, disabled, or makes less than 4, 000 a year. So any, you know, that normal route of getting healthcare for the poor or the uninsured is, is really closed to most women.
Dr. Popp: And those are the people that visit St. Mary’s Clinic.
Dorothy: Yes.
Dr. Popp: Those, those are the people that we give access to so that they can get basic preventive and other, you know, meet their other healthcare needs.
Dorothy: Oh yeah.
Dr. Popp: You know, I mean, you know, and we can go on the whole story about getting treatments and medicines.
I mean, cause I think the other part we didn’t talk [00:20:00] about here is the service you all provide when people have an abnormal mammogram. Because I, one of my criteria for whatever partner we have is like, fine, I can do a mammogram and say, Oh, yes, your mammogram’s abnormal. Oh, too bad. Figure out what to do. I mean, that’s not useful.
So, uh, one of our criterias for partnering with people is if you can’t help me with an abnormal, then I don’t want to partner with you because that doesn’t help me. It doesn’t help my patients. So I think one of the other aspects that’s probably not as much on the forefront of what you all Show to the public is what you do for people who have abnormals, whether that’s, you know, the next step of the diagnostic mammogram with the, with the ultrasound, whether it’s the biopsy, or if that biopsy should be positive, you know, what, you know, Where do you get treatment?
How do you get set up? Your navigators are great in helping people. What do you qualify for? You’ve, you know, I would say in all the years we’ve been together, they’ve been maybe [00:21:00] one or two people that we could not find any resources for that. We were just stuck. But I mean, and that’s in what, 20 years.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Popp: Um, so, you know, those, those are sort of the back. door kinds of, or back room kinds of things that just make a huge difference, you know, for people. Because when you say, when a woman finds out she has an abnormal mammogram, it may be just because they can’t see a shadow or something, but to them, it’s cancer until proven otherwise.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Popp: So, you know, the fact that they can get a timely appointment, that they know they may have to pay something, but not a lot, you know, it just makes a huge difference for, for the women, um, for that next step. And I think that’s sort of, um, Something that probably isn’t talked about as much when y’all are doing your promotions, that it’s just, just enormously important.
Dorothy: Yeah, you know, you’re right. We don’t focus on that as much as we do the screening and getting the mobile out there. But it is. We diagnose somewhere around 450 or 500 women a year. And men. You know, we [00:22:00] have the occasional men. But, uh, half of those are invariably uninsured. That means that 250, or we’re trying to find help for, and most, like you said, go through the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program.
That is a state program, but it has very strict criteria, and a lot of it has to do with that income. And you know, in the way that that program looks at income is the family income. So far be it, that you have a teenager. Yeah, that works at the local hamburger place because that salary is going to be counted as your household income Along with the woman’s and that’s where it gets that that very it’s just difficult We can have we can have a woman who’s a hundred dollars a month over the limit
Dr. Popp: Yeah.
Dorothy: A hunDred dollars a month! And can’t get her in so then we’re having to turn to other partners or to doctors we have We have some doctors that do pro bono, and unfortunately it doesn’t [00:23:00] cover everything, you know, that’s, that’s a sad thing, we can almost get through the cancer, but we can’t do anything else with that.
Dr. Popp: And even harder are the women who work for, say, cleaning houses, and they get paid in cash, you know, every other week, they don’t have proof of income.
Dorothy: No.
Dr. Popp: You know, and that’s when you’re really stuck. And as you both know, we’ve, you know, those are just other, other, you know Uh, avenues that we have to pursue and other, you know, bridges we have to cross to get what we need for our patients.
But again, you know, and, and those are all kind of the outliers, but I think as a whole, you know, this is just a success, such a successful program and such a needed program because, you know, like I said, where do you go? What do you do? You know, even knowing possibilities of, you know, okay, well, this is what I can do, you know, and, and how.
To get there, because, you know, as we know, even with [00:24:00] filling out the forms for the mobile mammography, a lot of our people aren’t literate in English. And aren’t literate in filling out forms, whether it’s English or Spanish or whatever language it is. And so, having somebody to help them go through the process of filling out a form, how do I turn it in, what happens when the paper comes back, you know, all those steps to make something happen are hugely important.
Because, I mean, I, you know, as I said, in our clinic work for lots of things, medicines, you know, treatment plans. If we don’t have somebody working with the patient and for the patient, I mean, I can give them that piece of paper and that’s going to sit there until the rats eat it. I mean, nothing’s going to happen to it because they don’t know what to do with it.
And so I think that other, again, pieces that people don’t, unless you’re in that situation and have to help people walk through it, most people don’t realize how important it is to have someone walking with the [00:25:00] patient through these processes. Uh, not only psychologically, but just, just to get it all done.
Dorothy: Right. And I, I know that one of the docs at, uh, Methodist told me that your patients are the most educated we have. He was so surprised because they are uninsured, you know, they’re coming through the program, and he said, but your people. Your navigators have told them what to expect and they’ve prompted them what questions to ask and not to be afraid to do that.
Now, you know, that’s a very daunting time. You’ve got cancer, you’re depending on somebody to treat you, and you have questions and you, you know, I don’t, I don’t care. Insured, uninsured, you’re very reluctant to question that doctor on anything. And so they, the navigators serve as that in between.
Dr. Popp: Mm hmm.
Dorothy: They, they’ll call the navigator and say, now why am I doing this?
Dr. Popp: Yes.
Dorothy: And, you know, and I have to tell you, uh, Dr. Popp, when we started the navigation program, [00:26:00] and I’m telling on myself, Uh, I thought, here we diagnosed him. We had the slides, you know, that showed, we had the PATH report. I would have our people give them that, and at that time, Harris Health was all we had.
Dr. Popp: Yes.
Dorothy: You know, and I’d say, so they have to go on to Harris Health, but they’ll get right in. I didn’t know, I was so naive, so stupid, but we had a lady who had been diagnosed, it was six months later, and for some reason, one of our, our employees called her about something. And it turned out she’d never had treatment.
Dr. Popp: Mm hmm.
Dorothy: I was floored.
Dr. Popp: Mm hmm.
Dorothy: I mean, I, I can’t, I can still remember how, you know, terrified I was. This woman had been walking around six months without treatment. And it turned out she didn’t want her family to know.
Dr. Popp: Uh huh.
Dorothy: And she didn’t have anybody else, and she had gone to Harris Health, and they asked her how [00:27:00] much money her husband made, and she didn’t know, and they wouldn’t go any further with her.
And so I remember having, uh, one of my employees was, was a cancer survivor, breast cancer survivor, had her come in, and the woman come in, and it was so precious because she said, you’ve got to do this for your son. You know, you’ve got to do this, and that She became my first patient navigator. She went to the house with the patient and said here’s what’s going on.
This is why we have to do all this. I and that from then on.
Dr. Popp: Yes.
Dorothy: I said, that’s it.
Dr. Popp: Yeah.
Dorothy: You know, they’ve got to have somebody, somebody to walk with them.
Dr. Popp: And that’s, you know, that’s I think one of the Um, advantages of coming to places like St. Mary’s Clinic because we recognize, you know, like my staff, some people are actually just there, um, to help people go through the process, you know, it’s like, well, [00:28:00] I can write 60, 000 prescriptions, but if the person can’t get them and doesn’t know how to get them, so, you know, one of my earliest Asks when we started the clinic was I have to have a, a, a patient assistant person, whatever we want to call them for, for job title that helps people walk through whatever they need to do.
And I think, you know, again, that’s one of those things where it’s like you go. Well, duh, you know, because, you know, you, it’s not one of those things that jumps in your mind that, that you’d say, okay, this is what we need for our patients, but it, but it is.
Dorothy: It is. Absolutely. I think, I think we need patient navigators, patient advocates, whatever for every disease. It doesn’t matter who you are and it does not matter if you’re insured or uninsured.
Dr. Popp: And if you have a good patient navigator, a social worker, they’re worth their weight in gold.
Dorothy: They sure are. They are. And, and, you know, that’s another little issue with state. That we cannot get, uh, patient navigators reimbursed.
They have no DrG code. They [00:29:00] have no, no way that you can actually charge for their, their services. And you’re going, wait a minute.
Dr. Popp: Yeah.
Dorothy: You know, come on. And they’re invariably lay people. They’re not medical.
Dr. Popp: Right.
Dorothy: And if they were medical, they’d scare the people to death. Really! I mean, you know, these are women who are street smart.
Dr. Popp: Yeah.
Dorothy: They understand what that woman’s gonna face.
Dr. Popp: Yeah.
Dorothy: And, and they know how to talk with her and how to encourage her. Everybody needs that.
Dr. Popp: Well, and I think the other thing about our patient navigators and our, and our assistants is they understand a lot of, um, how, how to, how to access the resources.
Because it’s like, okay, if you fill it out like, the form like this, it’s not going to happen. You have to fill the form out like this.
Dorothy: Right.
Dr. Popp: You know, and you know, you can say your income in a certain way that’s being acceptable. Where in another way, it’s not. And you’re not, you’re not lying or cheating.
You just are learning how to play the game, as it were, to answer the questions in a [00:30:00] format that is acceptable. So, you know, a lot of that, and it’s experience, and they have it.
Dorothy: So, it’s and so many of our patients haven’t asked for help before.
Dr. Popp: That’s correct.
Dorothy: You know, they have always paid their way through.
There’s no way you can do that with cancer.
Dr. Popp: Yeah.
Dorothy: But, uh, it’s, it’s a whole process.
Dr. Popp: Well, they’ve either learned to pay their way through or they just don’t do it.
Dorothy: Don’t do it.
Dr. Popp: You know, and that’s, again, with cancer you can’t do that. And you know, the other thing I think too that’s important, you know, not for people that don’t have cancer but need close follow up.
Dorothy: Oh, yes.
Dr. Popp: Because that’s another avenue that you all help us with because it’s like, okay Well, this person doesn’t have cancer, but we need like a six month check to make sure that it’s not going to turn into cancer Well, they have that’s you know Sort of put into the program that you all have so that we can automatically schedule those and follow up and I think that’s that’s another You know sort of back piece that’s important.
Dorothy: Oh, absolutely.
Dr. Popp: So, you know all these bits and pieces that as a [00:31:00] provider You, you, you makes your life a whole lot easier and makes the patient’s life a whole lot easier because you have all those steps already in place.
Dorothy: Right. Well, thank you for that. That, that’s good to hear.
Dr. Popp: So, you know, sometimes you don’t know what you have in your own house.
Dorothy: So true.
Dr. Popp: Or you take it for granted because it becomes part of what you do.
Dorothy: So I’m going to make sure every single employee hears this.
Dr. Popp: That sounds good because they deserve it. They do. I mean, you know, we, you know, we have, you know, my, my patient navigator or, and my, um, my medical coordinator, they have, they have connections to your back offices.
You know, it’s like, well, I called so and so and we worked this out, you know, or I called so and so to see what we could do about this. Uh, you know, and so, I mean, those kinds of connections are just invaluable.
Dorothy: Well, it’s been a delight to work with you all these years. You know, we always could count on you and, and, you know, we’ve sent people to your clinic.
Dr. Popp: Well, that’s good. I mean, you know, we, we, we welcome, we always say we have reverse [00:32:00] discrimination. If you’re insured, you can’t come, but if you’re not insured, you come.
Dorothy: I love it. I love it.
Dr. Popp: So, that’s kind of how, sort of our tagline, but, uh, yeah, I mean, you know, we’re, we’re welcome to help any women. And I have to tell you a funny little story.
That, um, we had a patient that came to our clinic and we, She came for a general checkup, and we sent her for a mammogram, and it was abnormal, and she had to get more workup, and I don’t think she ended up in a biopsy, but anyway, she had the diagnostic workup. And so all of a sudden, we had about three or four people that just kind of showed up, and it was like, well, my friend said we should come get our mammograms.
So this friend was referring people to us so that we could send people for mammograms.
Dorothy: Hey!
Dr. Popp: So it was like, okay, we can do that. It worked.
Dorothy: Yeah.
Dr. Popp: Because some people think they can just show up and get on the bus.
Dorothy: Oh, right.
Dr. Popp: You know, it’s like, no, you have to be our patient here because we have to go through the process.
Oh, okay. [00:33:00] Or if they really have their own doctors, we’ll just give them your number and say, have your doctor call over here. So, you know, and say, they can do that too. We’re not the only ones that can do it. But we had a laugh. It was like, in a week, I had like three people that said, my friend said we were supposed to come and get our mammograms.
I’m like, okay, that sounds good to me.
Dorothy: Hey, but that’s the way it gets out.
Dr. Popp: That’s right. That’s right.
Dorothy: And we want women to talk about it.
Dr. Popp: That’s right.
Dorothy: Especially if they’re uninsured and have nowhere else to go. That’s great. You’re an arm of The Rose when it comes to mammograms.
Dr. Popp: We’re an arm for those people who need health.
Dorothy: That’s right.
Dr. Popp: And we all work together, and people always say, well, you know, you do the work, and I say, but you know. I have a philosophy that we’re all in this together, whether, and this is sort of a plug for donors, because it’s like, you know, I may be the best person in the world, but if I have no funds, I’m nowhere.
Dorothy: That’s true.
Dr. Popp: You know, and I always say, so people who have funds and want to donate, they’re just as much as missionaries as us, they’re just as smart a part of our mission as the rest of us. We each have our own [00:34:00] part to do. You know, my part is to be the ground person. Somebody else’s part is to donate the money.
Somebody else’s part is to, you know, donate time. So I always say, you know, the mission is big, and it needs all kinds of parts to make it work. And, you know, I always want people who are donating to feel that, whether they donate to The Rose, or whether they donate to Christus, or, you know, we’re all together in this mission together.
Dorothy: That’s true. And that’s a great way to put it.
Dr. Popp: And, you know, it’s kind of like the Bible story about the parts, every part has a part. You know, because we’re all the body of Christ. Well, it’s kind of the same thing. We’re all parts of this mission to make, to make people’s lives better.
Dorothy: That gives me chills.
Dr. Popp: But I think that’s true. You know, we don’t always look at it in that kind of big picture, but, you know, the on the ground people would be nowhere without everybody else. So we’re all parole. You give what you have.
Dorothy: You’ve certainly given us many, many years of great partnership and many, many years of life to so many of the [00:35:00] women that we’ve both served.
Dr. Popp: Well, and like I said, it’s a partnership. We can’t do it with, you know, if I didn’t have any place to send people, we wouldn’t do it. So I, you know, as again, I think we’re all, we’re all part of the, part of humanity and taking care of each other.
Dorothy: That is so important, right now.
Dr. Popp: Yes, yes.
Dorothy: Yes. Well, thank you again for being with us.
I know we’re going to have you back, especially when we start our Spanish series, so we’ll need you for that.
Dr. Popp: This has been fun. I’ve enjoyed it, and you know, it’s always enjoyable to be able to, to toot our own horns a little bit and tell the world about the good that we do.
Dorothy: That’s true.
Dr. Popp: So thank you for inviting me.
Dorothy: Oh, of course.
Post-Credits: Thank you for joining us today on Let’s Talk About Your Breasts. This podcast is produced by Speke Podcasting and brought to you by The Rose. Visit therose.org to learn more about our organization. Subscribe to our podcast, share episodes with friends, and join the conversation on social media using hashtag #Let’sTalkAboutYourBreasts.
We welcome your feedback and suggestions. [00:36:00] Consider supporting The Rose. Your gift can make the difference to a person in need. Remember self care is not selfish. It’s essential.
