Download Cancer Care Center Annual Report - St. Anthony's ...

A Challenging and Rewarding YearBrian PenceThis has been my third year as Executive Director of Oncology Servicesat St. Anthony’s Medical Center. I have had the privilege to work for athird year with a terrific group of physicians, nurses, therapists and manyother cancer care professionals as we work together to grow the program.This year we have been involved in a strategic process improvementfor St. Anthony’s. The tasks forces associated have successfully met thetargeted cost savings and financial improvements for the organization.This will place us in solid financial grown for future initiatives for thecancer program. An example of new initiatives has been the use of ournew High Dose Rate Brachy-Therapy (HDR) unit for the treatmentof lung cancers in the bronchus as well as certain esophagus tumors. Inboth situations we have an interdisciplinary team of physicians and staffcaring for the patient with quality and efficiency. Pulmonologists andGI doctors come directly to the cancer center to work with our radiationoncologists so we do not need to transport the patient from one clinic toanother. It is a terrific example of interdisciplinary care.The outpatient infusion center cares for more and more patients eachyear, delivering treatments for not just cancer but many other diseasesas well. Approximately 60 percent of our patients cared for in OPinfusion have a cancer diagnosis. The other 40 percent have other healthconcerns.Approximately 1,317 new cancers were diagnosed at St. Anthony’sMedical Center in 2011. This was a smaller number of patientsdiagnosed in 2012, which was 1,486. While the number of patientsdiagnosed declined, the number of patients who received treatmentfor cancer at St. Anthony’s increased. Our interdisciplinary care offersthe opportunity for patients to have a streamlined and efficient accessto all of the oncology therapies in order to tailor treatment to theirindividualized needs. The cancer center met all of its quality goals for2011 including excellent patient satisfaction and employee satisfactionscores.We look forward to working with our medical oncologists in 2013to create and implement clinical pathways for the Cancer Care Center.Clinical pathways are the stepping stone for outcomes-based medicineand our team of physicians will continue to be engaged in the creationof pathways for all of the primary cancers diagnosed in our community.This approach assures not just the success of treatment delivery butmeasures the positive effect of an inter-disciplinary approach to cancercare. The goal will be to provide patients and the community withmeasured results of the quality care this is provided.We look forward to meeting the oncology needs of our community.We are here to provide quality care in a compassionate and comfortablesetting. Warmest regards.Brian PenceExecutive Director, Cancer Care Center314-525-40636