MARCH 2004
Volume 28 • No. 3

Medical Staff dues and fees provide a variety of services

Medicine community attends Strategic Planning Retreat

'Boarding Pass', H&Ps crucial to OR safety, efficiency, compliance

Physicians Be Prepared /JCAHO Q&A.pdf

JCAHO dates set in April, IMO survey deferred

Collaboration, amenities, facilities enhanced by new Cancer Center

Saul A. Rosenberg, left, professor emeritus and retired chief of the Division of Oncology, talks with some newer members of the division he headed for decades. Rosenberg, along with oncology fellows Natalia Colocci, center, and Michael Yen, were among attendees at a physician reception held Feb. 10 to mark the opening of the new Cancer Center.

Collaboration, amenities, facilities enhanced by new Cancer Center

After more than a decade of dreaming, planning and building, Stanford's myriad scattered outpatient oncology programs have moved into a new consolidated state-of-the-art, 165,000-square-foot Cancer Center.

Patients arrived for appointments on opening day, Monday, March 1 - just two days after the last patients were seen in clinics throughout the medical center.

Radiation oncology chair Richard Hoppe, who also serves as chair of the Clinical Cancer Steering Committee, was actively involved in planning for the center and implementation of its programs.

Hoppe said a plethora of patient amenities, ease of interaction among caregivers, enhanced opportunities to engage in clinical and translational research, and advanced services are among highlights of the new facility. "Where I think we'll really see improvements is in the amenities offered to families and patients who have come to Stanford for cancer care," said Hoppe, the Henry S. Kaplan-Harry Lebeson Professor in Cancer Biology.

"We have a tradition of more than 40 years of multidisciplinary clinics, multidisciplinary care, and translation of research findings to our clinical programs. These traditions will continue even more effectively and efficiently in this great new setting," said Hoppe.

Hoppe said enhancements to the clinical oncology programs are expected in three broad areas - high technology facilities, expanded and enhanced amenities, and a clinic design that will allow increasingly closer collaborations and interactions among physicians and other caregivers. Program growth is likely to occur in areas such as head and neck surgery, urology, gynecologic oncology, thoracic oncology and surgical oncology, as a result of recent and anticipated recruitments, Hoppe said.

While some equipment will be moved in the days following the center's opening, several new devices have already been installed and are available for the first time at Stanford. A PET/CT simulator combines stunning diagnostic images from both modalities in a single session on a machine specially modified for radiation therapy treatment planning. It is the only such machine in Northern California. Linked to this imaging capability is "respiratory gating" which further enhances the accuracy of radiation therapy planning and treatment delivery. In addition to the PET/CT simulator, the radiation oncology department includes new machines for conventional digital simulation, a brachytherapy suite for doing radioactive implants, and five state-of-the-art linear accelerators, three of which are new and were ready for treating patients on March 1. The Cancer Center offers the best radiation therapy technology in the Bay Area, backed by a very experienced group of physicians and staff, Hoppe said.

The Cancer Center also houses a breast center where women with suspected breast cancer will be seen in consultation and where diagnostic studies will be performed. In May, a stereotactic breast biopsy device will move from the hospital to the Cancer Center. Other features include highly accurate and noninvasive digital mammography, which allows physicians to store images in an electronic format, as well as a dedicated ultrasound unit that facilitates onsite imaging as part of a single mammography appointment.

The consolidation of services and programs in one facility fosters closer collaboration among physicians and medical staff, giving patients improved access to various nationally recognized cancer specialists.

"Interaction among physicians is obviously not new - collaborations were productive during our interdisciplinary clinics," Hoppe said. Sometimes even the walk to clinic from the parking lot could spark a conversation between two doctors that could make a difference in patient care.

"But we are taking the concept of cooperation even further here by placing the offices of affinity groups of physicians together to formalize, enhance, and intensify those interactions," he said. The clinical trials office will also be located in the Cancer Center, further expanding options for providing innovative care, he noted. This is an important component of the plans for the School of Medicine to obtain National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation for its comprehensive cancer center.

Surgeons and oncologists will be seeing patients on the same day, reducing travel time and multiple-day scheduling.

But the most dramatic differences will likely be the experience offered cancer patients and their families.

"This center is spacious and luxurious," he said. "We are no longer working in cramped quarters.

"The infusion center has large windows looking out onto the trees and hills, or patients in their comfortable recliners can watch headset-equipped personal televisions in their comfortable personal recliners. The radiation therapy department has a patient corridor looking out into a Zen courtyard." The ground floor waiting area also opens up to a garden with a sculpture fountain. A meditation room is available on the second floor.

Hoppe noted the Center has an outpatient pharmacy, a branch of the Health Library, a cafŽ, as well as donor-financed patient concierge services. Art will be displayed throughout the building, and a piano placed in the lobby will make music programs easy and likely. The building will soon have a boutique offering cancer-related supplies, as well as gift items.

The building is four stories, and cancer services will account for about 165,000 square feet of the 220,000 gross-square-foot building. Assignment of the additional square footage is pending. The building housing the Cancer Center is called the Stanford Advanced Medicine Center.

"This building is dedicated to healing and hope," said Martha H. Marsh, president and CEO of SHC. "It is dedicated to our courageous patients facing cancer. We hope our new Cancer Center will support many new diagnostic and treatment options that will improve the health and quality of life for our patients.

We also hope the amenities provided by our generous donors - art, music, gardens, a health library and concierge services - will support the spirits of patients battling cancer and those who care for them."