Browsing ‘Employee Testimonials’
Of Mission and Trials
Cancer trials at St. Joseph Hospital Cancer Center
“We will have fulfilled our promise when every PeaceHealth patient receives safe, evidence-based, compassionate care: every time, every touch.” PeaceHealth Vision Statement 2012
Evidence-based.
The phrase forms an essential part of St. Joseph Hospital’s Mission and Promise, following directly and appropriately from “safe.” Clinical trials provide evidence essential to providing the best possible treatments. Dr. Michael A Taylor, from St. Joseph’s Hospital Cancer Care Center Radiation Oncologist, emphasizes this point in his video. “This is the main way we’re going to going advance cancer care for our patients.”
With some trials come issues for a patient to consider, carefully, in conversations with a doctor; they also offer access to the newest medications and treatments, presenting possibilities for better outcomes than achieved by more conventional approaches. In every case, trial participants help refine the science that improves and extends our lives.
The same can be said for the facilities that volunteer to participate in studies, Qualifying for these is an enormously time consuming and labor-intensive process. In the dynamic field of radiation oncology, St. Joseph’s is the only Washington hospital west of the mountains and north of Seattle to pass the rigorous Quality Assurance Review administered by the National Cancer Institute.
Dr. Taylor identifies the implications of this registration: “We’re able to enter patients in trials because we’ve received a stamp of approval from a very demanding body. The fact that we’re willing to accept the challenges (of achieving accreditation) demonstrates our commitment,” also the sophistication of St. Joseph’s technology and skilled staff. “And none of the staff hours required for the process are paid for by any agency but the Hospital, and by donations to the Hospital Foundation.”
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:
Michael Taylor, MD on the Clinical Trials Available for Cancer Patients
Michael Taylor, MD, Radiation Oncologist, on advancing cancer care and treating more patients.
Dr. Ian Thompson, On What Sets Our Cancer Center Apart
Ian L. Thompson, MD, Radiation Oncologist, describes the uniqueness of the St. Joseph Cancer Center.