Measuring Mission at the St. Joseph Foundation
“Much of the work being done at St. Joseph Hospital falls into the category of ‘best kept secrets.’ Our job at the Foundation is to share with the community the remarkable work being done by our local physicians and the caregivers at the Hospital. The more people who know about St. Joseph Hospital and our commitment to excellent medicine and compassionate care, the more they will feel compelled to support it, as many of you already do.”
-Nancy Steiger, Regional CEO & CMO, “CEO Briefing on Radiation Oncology” at Mt. Baker Theatre in Bellingham, WA on November 12, 2009
If some stories beg to be told, so do certain statistics. Especially when these numbers reveal how treating every patient with safe, evidence based compassionate care—every time, every touch—translate to remarkable rates of cancer survival. Extending lives provides a base measure, suggesting also symptoms relieved, illnesses managed.
Every Hospital program hopes to provide the finest care. At St. Joseph’s Cancer Center, survival rates for the most common cancer sites exceed those reported in the National Oncology Database, for cancers of the breast and prostate, by about two percent; and ten percent for lung and colorectal cancers.
The Cancer Center’s Dr. William Hall put the significance of these figures into perspective, in comments distilled from his November 12 presentation to members of the Circle of Care:
“When you look at ten percent differences in cancer specific survival–ten per cent higher than the national numbers–you realize something important…that St. Joseph’s care improves longevity better than any novel treatment developed in the last twenty years. Let me stress that: by coming to St. Josephs Hospital for treatment of lung and colorectal cancer, it improves the chance for survival by a percentage greater than more than any new treatment developed in the past two decades.”
The reasons for this success are many. Among these: awe-inspiring radiation technologies presented to the Circle of Care by doctors William Hall and Dag Jensen, scanning tomography that provides video voyages through living organs, and cross-section images that allow for precise targeting of tumors.
Nancy Steiger notes that a highly trained and experienced medical staff, cutting-edge technology, and the mission orientation of PeaceHealth combine to form a local health care system of the highest quality. Another factor that contributes to the caliber of care in Whatcom County is the extent to which our community is engaged and supportive of the hospital. Circle of Care donors support the growth and development of health care in Whatcom County. The excellent medicine and compassionate care for which St Joseph Hospital and PeaceHealth are becoming known cannot be taken for granted. These are community resources which require the kind of nurturing and support offered by Circle of Care donors.
-Written by Seth Norman