Navigator Guides Cancer Patients Through Medical Ordeal

Learning you have breast cancer is tough enough, but finding out Friday afternoon before the long Labor Day weekend — when doctors, like other folks, are more apt to be out of town and unavailable to discuss the diagnosis — makes the news that much more difficult to handle.

Lisa Marcus knows, because that’s what happened to her, throwing her into an agony of fear and uncertainty that didn’t lift until her physician returned to find a panicky message and quickly call Marcus back with details and reassurance.

Marcus’ experience is exactly what the Oregon Imaging Centers, in partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure — a nonprofit organization that raises money to eradicate breast cancer through research, early detection and treatment — want to avoid.

Within the next several months, the imaging center, a for-profit medical business that already offers a full range of preventive and diagnostic body scanning services, plans to open a new facility dedicated exclusively to breast health. The Oregon Imaging Breast and MRI Center will be in the Northwest Specialty Clinics building next to PeaceHealth’s new Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend hospital, which opened in August in Springfield’s Gateway area.

One of the most important features of the new center will be the presence of a “patient navigator” to help women who receive a breast cancer diagnosis, said Josh Kermisch, director of business development at Oregon Imaging Centers.

“Women who have just learned they have breast cancer have a lot to deal with, and depending on their relationship with their regular doctor, many don’t know how to get from Point A to Point B — how to understand the pathology report, how to find a surgeon, how to choose an oncologist and how to arrange for followup treatment,” Kermisch said. “It’s the patient navigator’s role to work with women from the very beginning to make sure they have all the help they need to get through the process.”

The original plan for the center didn’t include a patient navigator position, and that’s where the Komen organization played a role, Kermisch said.

“From the beginning, we wanted the patient’s voice to be heard loud and clear, and I know that is one of Komen’s goals,” he said. “When I talked to them, they encouraged us to apply for a grant (through them) to hire a patient navigator.”

Oregon Imaging Centers pledged $60,000, and Komen granted an additional $40,000 as seed money for the position. In August, Paula Saieva attended the training courses to become certified as a patient navigator and has begun working with newly diagnosed women. Saieva has her own personal know­ledge of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment: She had a malignant breast tumor and underwent a successful lumpectomy 22 years ago.

“The patient navigator training is very intensive; it covers everything from what cancer is, the various types, how to deal effectively with patients, family and friends and how to help all of them get the information they need and make good decisions,” Saieva said.

If a woman doesn’t have a close relationship with a primary care physician who can refer her to specialists such as a surgeon or oncologist, the patient navigator can help match the patient with physicians who will be compatible, she said.

Marcus sees it all as a move in the right direction. “For me, the way things turned out because of the holiday, having a patient navigator available would have been a huge help,” Marcus said. Marcus learned of her cancer as a result of an annual mammogram. After her mammogram showed possible microcalcifications in one breast, she returned to the imaging center later for additional digital views. Because those views indicated the existence of microcalcifications, which sometimes can be cancerous, she chose to have a biopsy, which was performed on the Wednesday before a Labor Day.

“My doctor told me the results would be done in two days, but he was going to be away,” Marcus said. “On Friday, I called and talked to a nurse about getting the results. She talked to the on-call doctor, who said to tell me. She said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you that the biopsy is positive for invasive ductal carcinoma.’ I was just stunned.”

She spent a high-stress weekend talking to relatives and friends with medical backgrounds and worrying nonstop about the technicalities of the pathology report and how to go about contacting a surgeon.

“On Monday, my doctor got my message, and he explained things to me and told me the surgeon he would recommend,” she said. “From that point on, things went very smoothly.”

Marcus’ experience highlights how a patient navigator can help most, and the concept is catching on in health organizations nationwide, Kermisch said.

Had the new breast center been up and fully operational, Marcus would have been introduced to Saieva as soon as she received her diagnosis — perhaps even earlier, at the biopsy stage — so that the patient navigator could have begun immediately by explaining the pathology report, helping to schedule appointments and clarifying questions to ask surgeons or oncologists.

“The goal of a patient navigator is to be friendly, hopeful and reassuring, “but not to make promises,” Kermisch said. “Paula’s job is to answer questions, gauge the patient’s overall sense of alarm — and make sure the patient follows through and comes in for treatment, because early detection is the best insurance for a good outcome.

Source: Randi Bjornstafl; The Register-Guars

Comments

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Il existe d'autres alternatives pour résoudre cette crise qui ne charge pas gravement la charge du contribuable américain (la façon dont le plan actuel ne). Mais, espérons que ces alternatives seront examinées rapidement avant qu'il ne s'aggrave ... oh, et que les dirigeants nationaux cherchent la sagesse de Dieu dans ce processus ci-dessus toute autre chose.

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Within the next several months, the imaging center, a for-profit medical business that already offers a full range of preventive and diagnostic body scanning services, plans to open a new facility dedicated exclusively to breast health. The Oregon Imaging Breast and MRI Center will be in the Northwest Specialty Clinics building next to PeaceHealth’s new Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend hospital, which opened in August in Springfield’s Gateway area.