DENVER -- Whenever a woman goes in for a mammogram, she waits and often worries.

In 1998, Congress enacted a law called the Mammography Quality Standards Act. The Food and Drug Administration ensures that written notification occurs promptly, in easy-to-understand language, to the patient, within 30 days.

The goal of the legislation was to make sure women weren't in the dark about the results of their mammograms.

But the wife of a 7NEWS employee, who we are identifying as "Anne," wanted to know why she didn't learn of the results of her exam until five weeks later.

Anne said she visited the Clearview Digital Radiology Center, located in Littleton, on Oct. 9. Anne said she had her mammogram and was told she would hear from them in "no longer than a week."

When Anne didn't hear from the radiology center she assumed "no news was good news."

"I was like, 'Good, there was no problem. We're good for another year,'" Anne said.

Anne said she finally received a call on Nov. 12, five weeks later, from a technician at Lutheran Exempla Hospital, part owner of Clearview Radiology. That technician told Anne that Clearview had closed.

"I think I was almost speechless," said Anne.

The technician told Anne she had salvaged her mammogram images and the results weren't good. Anne had problems in her breasts as well as calcifications.

Anne said she was terrified but that emotion quickly grew into anger over the delayed results.

"They have given me no answer as to why this happened," Anne said.

Kay Taylor, a spokeswoman for Lutheran Exempla, said there was no excuse for the delay.

"It was 34 days. (The results) typically would have (taken) two weeks," said Taylor.

Taylor said the hospital was aware of the FDA's Mammography Quality Standards Act. However, she said there were a couple of reasons that contributed to the mammogram's late results.

She said the hospital was missing Anne's previous mammograms for comparison. Taylor said they were still investigating why they didn't have those and why those tests took so long to obtain.

Taylor also thinks the situation was complicated by the center's closure. Taylor said the closure was the result of low volume.

Anne wasn't pleased with the hospital's response. She said a diagnostic test Wednesday showed she has a mass and must now undergo a biopsy.

The hospital apologized to Anne and said they have reviewed the rest of Clearview's charts and believes Anne was the only person affected by the move and lapse in results.