Geauga County patients seeking treatment for cancer can now stay close to home, since University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center's Seidman Cancer Center officially opened July 24.
Geauga County patients seeking treatment for cancer can now stay close to home, since University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center’s Seidman Cancer Center officially opened July 24.
This state of the art facility is the only comprehensive cancer care center in the county, and offers patients dealing with intense and often exhausting cancer treatments a serene setting with scenic natural views.
Dr. Judah Friedman is the medical director of the new cancer center, and has already noticed a change in the first week of its being open.
“I talk to patients and they’re just looking out the window,” he said.
The center also offers patients and their families a healing garden and natural accents throughout the space to create a calming environment.
The view is not the only thing that has improved for cancer patients at UH Geauga. The new 11,500-square-foot facility boasts 10 exam rooms and 18 spacious infusion bays, enough to handle up to 40 patients per day, overlooking a wooded valley east of the hospital. The cancer center connects by a doorway to the hospital’s radiation facility, which was completed in 2012.
The blood draw room is, according to Friedman, “almost as big as our entire facility used to be.”
Friedman now oversees a center that is one of a kind in Geauga County because it offers comprehensive cancer care under one roof.
“In 2008, we had two or three rooms,” Friedman said. It was clear to him and his staff that his patients needed access to daily radiation and a chemotherapy infusion center close to where they lived, instead of having to drive downtown to UH main campus.
The radiation center was built, but the infusion center had to wait for further funding. Now, Friedman said, patients can finally check in at one desk and walk down the hall to get their treatment.
Geauga patients can also participate in a number of clinical trials available through UH Seidman centers, and have access to social workers, dieticians and an entire library of patient information, he said.
Video conferencing links connect the new facility to University Hospitals main campus, which will allow doctors to discuss complex cases with top specialists while patients remain close to home. A new high-tech conference room will house the specialized equipment, Friedman said.
Nurse Manager Amanda Musial described the new system as useful for doctors because when doctors in Chardon pull up a patient’s records or scans of a tumor, doctors at main campus “can see the same pictures we’re seeing.”
The conference room will also be used for patients and families who take a weekly chemo class and for medical conferences, she said.
A future goal is to bring more surgeons in to the center, including those who specialize in surgical removal of tumors and gynecological cancers, Friedman said.
Construction of the new cancer center was made possible by a community of philanthropists and caregivers involved in funding and promoting the project, which broke ground last October.
Over 700 separate donors contributed $2.8 million towards the project, which totaled $5.6 million in construction costs, said Emilie Gottsegen, UH Geauga development officer. The largest single donation was a $300,000 gift from the William O. and Gertrude Frohring Foundation, a fund established in 1958 to support education, health and the arts.
Gottsegen said it took a couple of years to raise the necessary funds to complete the center and money is still coming in. She credits Jim Patterson, owner of Patterson Fruit Farms, with bringing in many donations. He chaired the campaign cabinet for the hospital addition and oversaw much of the fundraising.
Gottsegen said the hospital received so many donations that it will be hanging 25 plaques honoring major donors in the new cancer center. In comparison, she said, “a couple of years ago, we only had three plaques in the whole hospital.”
But the center was built by small donations — as Friedman put it, brick by brick.
One of those most grateful for the new infusion center is Geauga County Recorder Sharon Gingerich, herself a survivor of breast cancer and a patient of Dr. Friedman. Though she is now cancer-free and celebrating returning to a normal life, she is thankful for a new cancer center that will offer much more pleasant surroundings for those facing what she went through.
“It’s not a fun time when you’re going through chemo, it’s hard,” Gingerich said in a phone interview.”
“I’m glad it’s done,” she said. Gingerich was impressed with the amount of time it took for the project to be completed.
“It’s a concern of everybody’s,” she said. “I’m glad that people going through chemo will have the view and the peace and serenity.”
