Hospitals, cancer centers for improved care

LOVELAND and GREELEY — The official partnership between Banner Health’s Northern Colorado facilities and the MD Anderson Cancer Center launched in August, but the relationship has been ongoing for more than two years.

Banner Health underwent a series of steps to align its existing cancer centers with Houston-based MD Anderson’s philosophy, resulting in the MD Anderson Cancer Center at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley and the MD Anderson Cancer Center at McKee Medical Center in Loveland — the first MD Anderson Cancer Centers in the state.

“Through our relationship with MD Anderson, one major goal of ours is to provide the highest-level quality specialty oncologic care in all of Northern Colorado,” said Dr. Jeffrey Albert, oncology physician executive with the Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center, which comprises the Greeley and Loveland centers. “It’s exciting because MD Anderson is the number one cancer center in the nation.”

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To achieve The University of Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Center’s fully operational, multidisciplinary status, Banner Health had to ensure its programs, practices and patient care aligned with that of MD Anderson. Through multiple site visits over two years, MD Anderson evaluated Banner Health’s processes of care, typical patient experiences and quality control measures.

“They went through all of that in excruciating detail,” Albert said. “There were hundreds of things that all had to be done and reconciled before we could launch the program. … It’s a lot of work on our end.”

Through the partnership, patients receive access to MD Anderson’s care pathways, clinical trials and subspecialists who review patient cases, along with a care team engaged in multidisciplinary collaborations working together to create customized care plans for patients, he said.

“The fact we have access to MD Anderson specialists for additional opinions, that’s a big deal,” Albert said, adding that being integrated with MD Anderson’s team to review cases with world experts is a unique resource for Northern Colorado. “That means timely treatment. It means correct treatment.”

MD Anderson provides the best research protocols to its partner centers and wanted to bring its cancer care to Colorado to improve access, said Dr. Michael Kupferman, senior vice president of clinical and academic network development at The University of Texas at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

“What we’re looking to do is to take our evidence-based, research-driven, best in class cancer care delivery system protocols and algorithms and develop and integrate them into highly collaborative partner health systems,” Kupferman said “It’s that commitment to high quality cancer care delivery that we saw was a strong part of the culture in Northern Colorado. … After a very long assessment, we felt this would be an ideal location.”

MD Anderson places the patient at the center of care, not the hospital or physician, and before treatment is undertaken, the patient sees an entire care team of physicians and specialists, Kupferman said.

“We focus on not just treating the patient but healing the patient,” Kupferman said.

A patient visiting the breast multidisciplinary clinic, for instance, can see the surgeon and the surgical, medical and radiation oncologists in a single visit, Albert said.

“The patient doesn’t come to us. We all come to the patient,” Albert said. “We discuss and review the case together and come up with a plan. … The entire care model is designed around the patient for what’s going to be the most effective.”

Since August, the two cancer centers have seen a significant increase in patient numbers and patients coming from farther away, including from all over the state, Albert said.

“It’s a big deal. Patients have been accustomed to going to Denver or other places for subspecialty care,” Albert said. “One goal of ours is to offer everything they need, so they don’t have to go to Denver.”

Other hospitals in the Northern Colorado and Boulder Valley region house cancer centers within their facilities to provide patients with more access to care.

One such hospital is Centura Health Longmont United Hospital, which houses the Hope Cancer Center at Longmont United Hospital and the Longmont United Hospital Breast Care Center.

At the Breast Care Center, for instance, the physicians and staff specialize in breast cancer care and keep up-to-date on treatment guidelines and standards of care, said Ananda Badet, RN, certified breast cancer nurse and oncology nurse navigator, tasked with helping patients navigate the cancer care network from diagnosis to treatment.

The center, certified as a National Accredited Program for Breast Centers, handles 100 new cases a year, making sure to move patients through the cancer care network in a timely fashion to meet standards of excellence. The staff — such as breast surgeons, medical and radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists and the support staff of integrated therapists, physical therapists and social workers — communicates weekly about the patient caseloads and any new research, standards and guidelines to facilitate that input, Badet said.

“It really streamlines and expedites things because of the communication,” Badet said. “There are definitely protocols on how the patient moves from specialty to specialty. … It has been proven that people have better outcomes and a longer survival if they move more quickly between those steps.”

Nurse navigators at the Breast Care Center coordinate care and make sure patients follow the proper steps and do not face barriers in their treatment, Badet said. Integrative medicine can be included in their care, a specialty offered at the hospital for the past 20 years and something that sets the hospital apart, she said.

“The biggest thing is, number one, how passionate the team is and how much they communicate with each other and how much they care about each individual,” Badet said.

Second, unlike some other hospitals in the region, the Breast Care Center offers all of its services within the same block, instead of requiring patients to travel to different facilities, Badet said.

“You can get everything done in one place,” Badet said.

UCHealth operates a full-service oncology facility, UCHealth Cancer-Harmony Campus in Fort Collins, and has some services in Loveland and Greeley, seeing an average of 1,600 new patients a year. Before opening the Fort Collins cancer center in 2014, UCHealth was affiliated with the University of Colorado Cancer Center to gain access to clinical trials for increased treatment options and improved patient care.

“We are able to give them the latest, greatest treatments here in Colorado,” said Dr. Steven Schuster, medical director of the oncology clinical research department at UCHealth, Northern Region. “We’re giving them access to immune therapies or targeted therapies. … They’re getting the latest and greatest oncology care, getting away from chemotherapy with less side effects.”

The center follows national clinical practice guidelines in cancer treatment and provides quality oversight to ensure the guidelines are followed using real-time software in its electronic records system.

“We have access to the latest research. We have access to the most current treatment guidelines and standards for every type of cancer there is, and we’re doing a real-time review to make sure we’re staying current,” said JoAnn Lovins, RN, senior director of the oncology service line north.

At the point of diagnosis, UCHealth aims to offer the patient an appointment with an oncologist within 48 hours, instead of taking the average week, Schuster said.

From there, an entire team of physicians, nurses, specialists and support staff works with the patient through planning the treatment from a multidisciplinary approach, Schuster said.

Nurse navigators specialized in different types of cancers help the patients through each step of the treatment, answering their questions and concerns, Lovins said.

“It’s a stressful time for most people when they are diagnosed with cancer,” Lovins said. “They help the patient understand what the first appointment will be like and guide them through the rest of the process.”

The patients are surrounded by their physicians and the support staff, Lovins said.

“All of those supportive people help the patient move through a really challenging time in their life,” Lovins said. “We want to do everything we possibly can in our care, including (providing) the latest, greatest treatments. If we do that, we are going to be competitive.”

At Boulder Community Health Foothills Hospital, which is part of an independent hospital system with facilities in Boulder and Broomfield, the partnership is unofficial through a contract with the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, the state’s largest provider of cancer care in 20 locations.

“We really see them as great partners and great caregivers in this community,” said Jackie Attlesey-Pries, RN, vice president of operations and chief nursing officer at Boulder Community Health.

Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers is a physicians group that provides both inpatient and outpatient services from a multidisciplinary, multi-specialist approach that includes oncologists, radiologists, surgeons, pathologists and nursing staff, plus integrative medicine care providers and symptom management specialists who help manage side effects of treatment, Attlesey-Pries said. The physicians group engages in research and trials that are brought to patient care, she said.

“We do call it a partnership, and we do share resources,” Attlesey-Pries said. “They really direct the care and make sure we’re giving the very best care we can. … We work together to keep cancer care local, so patients don’t have to travel for high quality cancer care.”