Elimate restrictions that confine treatments to schedules that fit hospital
Posted By: Lawrence Emke 
Date Posted: June 1st, 2010 Category: Cost & Quality
I know that critical equipment and highly skilled talent is in short supply. This forces patients to travel long distances to obtain
critical care (service).
My sister-in-law must travel from her work place down into the
city, when a branch of the same hospital is literally across
the street from her work place. There are no staff (doctors) associated
with the leukemia department on staff at the branch location.
Therefore, she must travel 20 miles to get a shot once each day
for 5 days. (This not really a big deal, but you asked
how to make things better. This is one way.) I don’t know if
it is funding or politics or the insurance companies that are
restricting this service, but it could change for the better.
My wife is dying of AML. My sister-in-law is scheduled to
receive her injections starting 5 days from now. The injections
will take 5 days. If she survives the next 10 days, she can
then receive a boost in stem cells. I know that the staff
at the cancer center are highly trained, and the collection
equipment is very expensive and difficult to manage because
so many people need to use it.
My sister-in-law donated stems cells less than 6 weeks ago.
she has be re-examined to be sure she is still in sufficient
health to donate again. For her safety, they have to wait
to get the results back from the blood tests. She is willing
to sign a release to start getting the shots even if she has
developed some condition that would prevent her from donating,
yet we must wait until the lab results come back before she
can start getting the shots. Again another delay.
Delays and safety are important. If this were a gun shot accident
would we wait until the health professionals arrive before we
try to stop the bleeding or giving mouth-to-mouth?
Are there times when normal medical procedures should be
adjusted? Or is that only during absolutely critical times?
Just frustrated I guess.
Larry Emke
Comment By: Jason Merrill
Date & Time: June 2, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Larry,
It sounds like you're going through a lot and I feel for you. I'm a PR person at Barnes-Jewish and hopefully can shed some light.
I don't know the specifics of your situation, but my assumption from reading your post is your sister-in-law is donating stem cells for your wife's AML. It's the sort of thing where at this time the only place this can get treated is at Barnes-Jewish in the Central West end. Our Siteman Cancer Center here has access to technology and a staff that's specialized in performing such transplants. At this time, we're the only hospital in a couple hundred miles of St. Louis that has such ability.
Now, will this change in the future? I don't know. If you would have told me eight years ago that Siteman would be offering specailized radiation oncology treatments in sattelite facilities at Barnes-Jewish West County and Barnes-Jewish St. Peters as we do know, I would have been surprised. But as of today, yes, this is the only place who can do such a procedure.
As for the safety part, I don't want to make it sound like I'm a medical expert, but in my most layman of backgrounds I do know that in stem cell transplant, the safety of the donor is directly tied to the safety of the recipient. Patient safety is critical to everything we do.
The staff over there are great people and while you've probably done this already, talk to them about your concerns. They care an awful lot about their patients.
Sorry I can't help more, but hopefully I could answer some things.
Jason