Cancer care closer to home: CCMH prepares to open Oncology Center Sept. 15

by Melanie Chance

For rural cancer patients, a diagnosis can come with another difficult reality: getting to treatment.

Depending on where they live, patients may face repeated trips to Joplin, Springfield or Kansas City — sometimes several times a week and for months at a time.

As residents now know, Cedar County Memorial Hospital is preparing to bring much of that care closer to home.

Aiyana Joseph, Director of Growth for Main Street Rural Health, sat down with the El Dorado Springs Newsroom for a phone interview to discuss the new oncology services being developed at CCMH, the partnership behind the project, and what it could mean for cancer patients across the rural communities the hospital serves.

The current target opening date is Sept. 15.

Less than 30 days until launch is all that stands between CCMH and a new service that could significantly change access to cancer care in rural El Dorado Springs and surrounding areas.

The oncologist has already been hired, and work is underway to prepare the space and assemble the rest of the team. “We are building out the team right now,” Joseph said. “There’s going to be medical assistants, nurses, a patient liaison, all of the things.”

Why bring oncology to rural America? For those who already travel hours for specialized care, the real question is: why not bring it closer? When I asked Joseph why El Dorado Springs, she was ready with an answer.

Main Street Rural Health’s involvement in oncology grew from one clear message rural PCPs kept sharing: their patients needed cancer care closer to home. “We got a lot of feedback from the PCPs — this is great, we’re loving our service — another thing that we need is, we need oncology care,” Joseph said.

The problem becomes especially difficult after a primary care physician discovers something concerning and sends a patient for further testing.

A diagnosis may ultimately require a patient to begin months of treatment far from home.

“The closest center is Kansas City, Joplin or maybe even Bolivar, but that’s an hour away,” Joseph said, describing the types of situations Main Street Rural Health was hearing about in rural communities. “When someone needs to get an infusion and treatment three times a week for several months, there are a lot of people that just don’t have the transportation to do that, or they’re too sick, or they can’t take off work.”

Those stories led the company to begin studying cancer diagnoses and access to oncology services in rural America.

“We started to do a lot of data analytics on where this is happening, how many people are getting cancer, how many people are not getting treatment because they don’t have places close to home,” Joseph said.

The findings pushed Main Street Rural Health further into oncology.

“We’ve found that this is something we really wanted to delve into,” she said.

The company has since partnered with community hospitals to expand access to oncology services. Joseph said the oncology initiative is relatively new and CCMH is one of five hospitals involved so far. “We started looking at El Dorado Springs about the same time that Don Carpenter became the CEO,” Joseph said.

From there, the two organizations began determining what the partnership would look like, how the service would operate, and what would be needed to bring oncology care to the community.

While patients will receive their care through CCMH, the new oncology service is being developed through a partnership with Main Street Rural Health. CCMH is providing the hospital space and will employ most of the clinical staff, while Main Street Rural Health will employ the oncologist and an additional staff member and provide behind-the-scenes support.

Joseph emphasized during the interview that, from the patient’s perspective, this is a CCMH service.

“The focus is on CCMH,” Joseph said.

The goal is to make the partnership seamless for patients rather than create confusion over which organization is providing their care.

The service is expected to go well beyond having an oncologist available for consultations.

Joseph said CCMH expects to provide care for most common cancers, from diagnosis and treatment-plan development through chemotherapy and infusion treatment. The oncologist will provide both oncology and hematology services. For patients requiring highly specialized care that cannot be provided locally, Joseph said work is underway to establish a referral network. “If we run into an extremely specific case where we need to refer something out, we are actually building that referral network right now,” Joseph said. But for many patients, the goal is to keep their cancer care in El Dorado Springs.

“As of right now, we can do mostly any of the most common cases of cancer,” Joseph said.

The center will also accept more than traditional physician referrals.

“We will welcome self-referrals, referrals from PCPs — referrals from anyone,” Joseph said.

Another component of the program will involve helping patients navigate the financial complexities that can accompany cancer treatment.

Joseph said Main Street Rural Health will help patients work through issues involving private insurance, Medicare and other coverage.

“We’re going to be helping the patients navigate the financials per whatever their insurance is, or Medicare, or whoever they go through,” Joseph said. “We’re going to be helping them through that process, too.”

For a rural patient, however, one of the most immediate financial and logistical differences could simply be the drive.

Cancer treatment may require repeated appointments. Those trips can mean fuel expenses, missed work and relying on a spouse, relative or friend for transportation.

Joseph said Main Street Rural Health isn’t trying to suggest rural health care itself is broken.

“It’s not fixing things that are broken,” Joseph said. “There’s so many beautiful things that happen in rural health care throughout America, but there’s a lot of access issues or pain points that they feel there that are not necessarily really going on in urban areas.”

That difference in access is at the heart of the CCMH project.

Joseph said the goal isn’t to convince patients who are happy with their current oncologist or cancer center to leave that provider.

Instead, she wants residents to know another option is coming.

“We don’t want to take business from anywhere,” Joseph said. “But if there would be less of a burden for them to get care close to home, and for their family or whoever’s helping with transportation, we want to let them know.”

The program is also being developed with the ability to grow.

When asked whether increased demand could eventually lead to CCMH adding another oncologist, Joseph said the hospital and Main Street Rural Health are prepared to respond to what the community needs.

“We’re very flexible and open to that happening,” Joseph said. “It’s going to be watching it very closely and seeing what the needs are, and we will make sure that the needs are met.”

For now, all eyes are on Sept. 15.

“Our open date right now is September 15th,” Joseph said. “Hopefully — cross my fingers — that does not move. But we’re feeling pretty good that September 15th construction will be done, the team will be ready to go, oncologist on site. We can start treating people.”

For families throughout Cedar County and the surrounding rural communities, the impact of the project may ultimately be measured in something that doesn’t appear on a medical chart:

The miles they no longer have to travel for cancer care.

As for my question to Joseph about what the community can do to help, donations are welcome; for instance, throw blankets, soft hats, beanies, socks, gas cards, encouraging notes, coloring books/puzzles, etc.

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