83.9 F
San Fernando
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Simi Valley Hospital Partners to Advance Cancer Care

Simi Valley Hospital has teamed up with a radiology group in a bid to improve local cancer care, and convince area residents that they don’t have to travel 40 miles into the city for excellent care. The new partnership with Simi Valley Radiation Oncology Medical Center is not a merger or a joint venture. But two of the hospital’s most senior officials — the CEO and CFO — have been given seats on the board of the oncology center. In addition, the hospital will have some financial stake in the center, though officials declined to go into details. The partners hope to improve care and the variety of treatment options available to cancer patients. “We’d like to be able to expand and keep more people in the community. That’s our ultimate goal,” said Simi Valley CFO Jon Giese. “No one wants to drive 40 miles through L.A. traffic to get their treatment.” As rates of cancer increase, more community hospitals such as Simi Valley are trying to find ways to treat people at home, both as a way to burnish their reputation and keep critical business in the community. It’s not an inexpensive or risk-free strategy, however. Both physicians and equipment are costly investments and there is no guarantee that when faced with a life-threatening disease such as cancer, patients will choose a neighborhood hospital over those with more established reputations. Some hospitals — Antelope Valley Hospital, for example — are using partnerships with prestigious cancer centers as a way to keep patients in the community and capture the inpatient admissions and ancillary lab and treatment revenues. Antelope Valley is said to be in the last stages of negotiating such a partnership with a cancer center. The hospital has said it expects to gain some 2,500 new admissions a year from treating patients closer to home. For more than 17 years Simi Valley Hospital has been the home of the Nancy Reagan Breast Center, a state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging center inside Simi Valley Hospital. The hospital also houses the Radiation Oncology Medical Center, a separate business entity that’s owned by Coastal Radiation Oncology and OnCure Medical Corp., a national network of cancer treatment centers that partners with radiation oncology medical groups. While the radiation group is able to offer state-of-the art radiation services, Giese said he would like to grow the number of cancer service lines and treatment options, including chemotherapy, infusion therapy and other services that are not as readily available in Simi Valley as they are elsewhere. He said the hospital loses patients to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center and to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, among others. “If I had my wish list, I would build a whole cancer center with radiation, chemo, everything,” he said. But from a financial standpoint, he added, the hospital has to choose what it can afford and reasonably deliver. That’s where the partnership with the oncology radiation center will be helpful, he said. The hospital will be able to guide the radiation center in its understanding of what services are most needed, what kind of cancers are growing in the region and what equipment purchases make the most sense. “There is a lot of information we look at day to day that we will now be able to share with them to help guide them in what’s needed for this community,” Giese said. The more distanced relationship that the hospital has had with the radiation group has prevented such collaboration in the past. Giese said the hospital will not have controlling interest in the radiation group, nor will it pay for radiation equipment. But there will be more collaboration. One area the partners plan to beef up is marketing. Dr. Victor Schweitzer, director of the oncology center, said that now that the hospital has expanded and is looking sharper, it’s a good time to promote the cancer treatment services. “We’re hoping they will help us get the word out that we offer quality cancer care here — that patients don’t have to go to a tertiary hospital to get high-quality services,” Dr. Schweitzer said. For example, he said, the radiation center offers Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, which allows doctors to administer high doses of radiation to a tumor but bypass intestines, the spinal cord, and other unaffected areas of the body. “It’s very labor intensive and requires sophisticated equipment, but we can do it right here,” he said. The partners plan to send letters to area doctors to promote the treatment services and will plan a coordinated marketing campaign. “It’s great when a smaller center like this is able to piggy-back on a larger business like the hospital’s,” Giese said. “It will help get both our names out there.”

Featured Articles

Related Articles