Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
With construction complete and final cleanup under way, the Hi-Line’s own state-of-the-art cancer center is poised to open in 10 days. Joe LoDuca, chief operating officer of the Sletten Cancer Institute in Great Falls said scheduling is being planned to transfer cancer treatment for Hi-Line residents from the institute to the Sletten Hi-Line Cancer Center in Havre when it opens on Aug. 11. “We are, of course, getting calls from newly diagnosed patients interested in getting their care here,” LoDuca added. A media preview of the facility was held at the center Thursday, with the grand opening scheduled for Friday, Aug. 9. State-of-the-art care right next door The cancer center, a branch of the Great Falls institute, will allow people from the Hi-Line to receive state-ofthe- art care in Havre rather than having to travel to Great Falls or farther, with some now even traveling out of the state for their care. “People can stay right here, closer to home,” LoDuca said. The center has been designed in the same style as the Great Falls facility, to provide a combination of the best cancer treatment available while providing a comfortable, comforting environment, he said. The design is intended to provide quality treatment while at the same time engendering a feeling of hope, compassion, and healing. That is combined with the top equipment available to provide treatment, from state-of-the-art chairs in which patients can receive chemotherapy to the same model linear accelerator, the device which provides radiation treatment using electricity instead of radioactive materials, that is used in the Great Falls Sletten Cancer Institute. That was a $2 million investment, LoDuca added. The creation of the center, which has been years in the planning, has been a cooperative effort between the Sletten Cancer Institute, Northern Montana Hospital and the Northern Montana Health Care Foundation, LoDuca said. Northern Montana Hospital has built the building, while Benefis Health Care of Great Falls is supplying the equipment and furnishings and will operate the center. The Northern Montana Health Care Foundation committed to raising $1.2 million through a capital campaign, and as of Thursday had reached $903,000, said Christen Obresley, executive director of the foundation. A benefit golf tournament tomorrow is the next fundraiser, along with a major raffle for travel packages and the final benefit set for November with the foundation’s annual wine gala. LoDuca credited Dave Henry, CEO of Northern Montana Hospital, in his work with Benefis and the Sletten Cancer Institute, for the success in planning and constructing the Hi-Line center. He also credited the support of the community. “This has been an A-to-Z grassroots effort ,” LoDuca said. “It took hundreds of people to bring it where it is today.” Obresley also complimented the co-chairs of the capital campaign, Lynn Hamilton and David Leeds, for the success in the fundraising drive. “It’s been spectacular, the outpouring from the community,” she added. The opening of the center will change the nature of cancer treatment in north-central Montana, Obresley said.. “It really will make a difference in the lives of those pat ients who l ive on the Hi-Line,” she said. Open for business Aug. 11 LoDuca said the center will be staffed with both local people and with providers from Great Falls. Havre’s Kate Kuhr, RN, has started as the first nurse in the facility, and Dr. Roy Hall will be one of the center’s oncologists, doctors who study, diagnose and treat cancerous tumors. The Benefis Healthcare physicians from Great Falls who will care for patients at the Hi-Line center are Brian Abbot t , oncologist ; Grant Harrer, oncologist; Donald Berdeaux, oncologist; Kelly Underhill, radiation oncologist; and Barbara Gutschenritter, radiation oncologist. The center will also house a staff of radiation therapists to run the linear accelerator and a physicist who will monitor the performance of the machine. LoDuca said the scheduling of treatments in the Havre center is under way, requiring careful planning and coordination. When a patient and physician agree the transfer is appropriate, the treatment and procedures will be carefully scheduled to provide a clean break from the treatment in Great Falls to treatment in Havre, where appropriate, he said. “We will ensure a smooth transition,” he said. For new patients, the first work will be done in Great Falls, planning the methodology of treatment. “It’s very similar to what an architect or engineer does to plan a building,” LoDuca said. “It’s the blueprint for treatment.” Once that blueprint is in place, treatment will begin in Havre. LoDuca said that except for some specialized treatment, all work will be done in Havre. That will save patients countless hours and expense, he added. Figuring 110 miles one way or more to receive 42 treatments in Great Falls would add up to nearly 10,000 miles of travel. The center is also equipped for modern communications all of its records are digital, rather than paper, and it is connected directly with Northern Montana Hospital and the facilities in Great Falls. That will allow the doctors there to talk directly to patients and the staff members at the Hi-Line center, LoDuca said. The center is also part of the REACH Network, which electronically links 14 hospitals. “This is the future of health care brought to us today,” LoDuca said. The best in equipment and surroundings All of the design of the building has been made to provide the best, most comfortable care, LoDuca said. The design was created to ensure that the moment patients walk into the center, they are surrounded by a comfortable, reassuring environment, from the natural ambient lighting in the lobby to the waterfall behind a sheet of glass across from a “comfort fireplace,” he said. On one side of the lobby is the “image center,” providing a selection of items like wigs and breast prostheses and information on how patients can be comfortable with the effects of their treatment, such as the loss of hair common with chemotherapy. “It’s to help oncology patients go through the experience of living with cancer,” LoDuca said. The receptionist for the center will be at the back of the lobby, providing an important benefit, he said centralized scheduling from one source. “That is very important to the patients so they don’t have to be bounced around,” LoDuca said. Off from the lobby is a room with six stations to provide chemotherapy, designed with the care and comfort of the patient in mind. LoDuca said chemotherapy can easily last from an hour up to five to seven hours. “Imagine having to sit in a chair that length of time,” he said. The Hi-Line center invested in top-of-the-line chairs for that treatment, with extra padding, a footstool that can be pulled out, and removable trays to allow the patient to have lunch while there. Each station also has a personal bureau to place private items, and a chair in which a relative, friend or caregiver can sit while the patient receives treatment. The area also has a television where the patients can watch a DVD or the news, LoDuca added. “It gives them the ability to pass the time in comfort and compassion,” he said. The waiting areas are also designed with comfort in mind, although LoDuca said that typically the patients don’t have to wait more than 10 or 15 minutes. Next to the chemotherapy chairs is another room that can provide chemotherapy in private or if the patient needs extra attention, although studies show that most chemotherapy patients prefer the company, LoDuca said. “Patients really develop a bond with the other patients that are being treated,” he said. The facility also has its own pharmacy where the medications for the chemotherapy will be mixed. “This is critical, having a state-of-the art facility for mixing chemo agents,” LoDuca said. Farther into the facility is perhaps the heart of the center the $2 million, 18,000 pound linear accelerator. Housed in a vault with a maze-like design to baffle radiation and concrete walls 4-feet to 7-feet thick, it took 30 continuous truckloads of cement to build the structure, LoDuca said. “It is now the safest place in Havre,” he added. The accelerator, which uses high-voltage electricity that creates radiation by reflecting off of materials, is checked and calibrated as needed on a daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annual and annual basis, said head radiation therapist Trudy Worm. “There are a lot of checks that go into this,” she said. The accelerator uses a system of lasers to precisely position the patient exactly the same for each treatment, with the bench able to move to position the patient then the accelerator rotating around the patient to apply the radiation. A computerized system can adjust the aperture, giving a precise shape of the radiation to be applied. Into the future LoDuca said the opening of the center will bring benefits to both Havre and Great Falls, With less travel needed to receive cancer care for Hi-Line residents, more money staying in the area, new economic impacts generated by the center while the center’s main cont rac to r was the Sl e t t e n Construction Company, for which the institute and center are named, subcontractors and suppliers were hired locally, he said and quite possibly better results from the treatment closer to home, the benefits to the Hi-Line will be apparent. It will also benefit the institute in Great Falls, LoDuca said more space will now be available at the Sletten Cancer Institute. “The net gain will be greater than the net loss ,” he said. “This will be a win win win situation.”
