ProMedica Survivor Center at Flower Hospital helps patients post-treatment

Jill Johnson is a certified nurse practitioner with the ProMedica Survivor Center on the Flower Hospital campus in Sylvania. THE BLADE/ASHLEY STREICHERT Enlarge | Photo Reprints

The ProMedica Cancer Institute developed a program to guide cancer survivors through their healing process by meeting with a team of specialized health care providers.

A nurse practitioner and oncologist meet with patients to provide customized plans to assist their family doctors with follow-up treatment.

“If they’re not experts in the field, they would have to learn about all the different types of cancer,” said Dr. Bahu Shaikh, an oncologist with the Toledo Clinic and the Survivor Center. “We’re here as a service.”

The ProMedica Survivor Center opened in October, 2010 as part of the Hickman Cancer Center on the Flower Hospital campus, 5200 Harroun Rd., Sylvania. A committee of 12 physicians, nurse practitioners, and survivors met to organize the center. The program is similar to the LiveStrong Survivorship Center at University of California Los Angeles, said Jill Johnson, nurse practitioner with the local center. The committee meets quarterly to discuss the status of the program and to make improvements.

Kelli Andres, Sylvania resident and breast cancer survivor, was one of the first patients to attend the Survivor Center. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in February, 2010 and finished her radiation treatment in October that year.She received her treatment at the Hickman Cancer Center and heard about the program through her physicians.

“The Survivor Center brought it all together,” she said. “They made it into one big, comprehensive plan. They walk you through everything.”

The Hickman Cancer Center at Flower Hospital has the Survivor Center. THE BLADE Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Ms. Andres is a stay-at-home mom and volunteers at the Hickman Cancer Center on Mondays. She works in the library and spends time talking to patients in treatment.

“Cancer is so overwhelming,” she said. “Talking to these patients reminds me of how far I’ve come and to let the little things go.”

“There’s been a lot of input from survivors themselves,” said Dr. Kenneth Krupp, oncologist with ProMedica Flower Hospital and the Survivor Center. “We ask them what do you feel, what do you want, what do you need, what do you expect.”

The center is open to all patients, not just ProMedica patients. Patients can refer themselves, and many of them do, said Dr. Shaikh. Patients bill their insurance company for a consult and the remainder of the funding is provided by ProMedica.

“If they don’t have the funds, we’ll still see them anyway,” Dr. Krupp added.

The team meets with patients once a week during half-day clinics in a doctor’s office setting, said Ms. Johnson. The oncologist and nurse practitioner review the patient’s health and treatment history and develop a surveillance plan, which describes a follow-up care plan.

“The focus has always been on the patient’s cancer and the treatment,” she said. “Some other things kind of get pushed to the side because they’re not the priority. We try and pull in all the other things because the healthier they can keep themselves, the better outcomes they’re going to have.”

The team also recommends support services based on the patient’s needs. These services include dietary education, speech therapy, social work support, medication education, billing and financial counseling, support groups, educational seminars, genetic testing and counseling, and psychological services.

Survivor centers are a new concept in the past five years, said Dr. Krupp.

The national, nonprofit Institute of Medicine came out with a big study, said Dr. Shaikh, which recognized that there was an unfulfilled need of the patients who finished cancer treatment. There are 12 million cancer survivors, said Ms. Johnson.

Healthcare needs have become more sophisticated because the patient is expected to survive, said Dr. Shaikh. More than half of the cancer patients survive.

“Those patients who are surviving want quality of life as well as survivor, not just I’m alive and I’m bed ridden,” he explained.

“We’re not here to take the place of any of their doctors,” Ms. Johnson said. “We’re here to support them and put all the information together in one place.”

The Survivor Center recently implemented its Bridge to Fitness program, which meets three times per week. The program is to help with workout plans, including cardiovascular exercises, yoga, and meditation.

For more information, contact the Survivor Center at 419-824-1952.

Contact Ashley Streichert at astreichert@theblade.com or 419-206-0356.