“Cancer.” Just that word alone is enough to strike fear into the heart of any patient.
But with the recent opening of the new St. Tammany Cancer Center, a campus of Ochsner Medical Center, things just got a lot easier for local patients.
And that’s by design, according to St. Tammany Health System’s Chryl Corizzo, who recently paid a visit to the Lake 94.7 FM studios to speak with host Charles Dowdy about what sets the new cancer center apart – and why local residents should be excited about it.
Listen to their chat in the embedded audio player below or at The Lake website. You can also scroll down to read a transcript of their conversation, edited lightly for readability.
Charles Dowdy: It is a Thursday; our friends from St. Tammany Health System are here. Melissa Hodgson is here. I haven’t seen her in a minute.
Melissa Hodgson: Good morning, Charles.
Charles: How are you? We’re glad to have you. How are things by the way?
Melissa: Things are wonderful. You know, the COVID situation is very manageable around here. Our hospital is taking care of COVID as well as everything else – instead of taking care of COVID and telling everybody else we will take care of them later. So that is just a ray of sunshine. We are all walking with a spring in our step, feeling like we are on the downside of this fourth surge.
Charles: And do you feel like people are coming out in the sense that they are starting to tend to their medical needs and things?
Melissa: Oh, yes, absolutely. So many people put off the healthcare that they needed with concerns about COVID. So, now we are catching everybody up. We are doing all kinds of cancer screenings, taking care of cardiology patients and doing those primary care annual visits. You name it, and we’re getting it done before the end of the year.
Charles: Good. All right: Chryl Corizzo is here as well. She is back. She is – I am looking at this because it is a mouthful – clinical quality coordinator at St. Tammany Cancer Center. Is that right?
Chryl Corizzo: That is right.
Charles: All right, we are glad to have you back. How long has it been since you were here?
Chryl: Oh, I bet it has been a year.
Charles: All right, sum up the last year, if you don’t mind, in 60 seconds or less. In your life.
Chryl: Oh, just fun.
Charles: See, look at you. You should go into radio. You summarized that well. All right, but things are good.
Chryl: Things are really good. Just great.
Charles: All right, tell me what your job is and explain why it is important.
Chryl: Well, my job is just really looking at quality at the Cancer Center – really, throughout the hospital, anything that has to do with cancer care and patient care. So my responsibility is maintaining the accreditations that we have from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer as well as the NAPBC, which is the National Association for Breast Cancer Programs. We are very proud to have both of those accreditations. It means we go above and beyond what we have to do to be able to really provide exceptional quality patient care.
Charles: All right, Melissa. I don’t want to say there is a lot of red tape involved in providing medical care, but I would imagine there is a lot of red tape involved in providing medical care.
Melissa: Well, we always want to provide the safest, best care we can. So there are some rules.
Charles: So, that is a big part of what you are doing, is making sure that you are doing everything you need to do to keep everybody safe.
Chryl: Everybody safe as well as that we’re performing care based on nationally recognized evidence-based guidelines -- that we are trying to look at the patient as a person and really provide patient-centered care. I am really excited to talk to you about some of the things we are doing at the Cancer Center to really enhance, especially, a diagnostic process for a patient going through a potential new cancer diagnosis.
Charles: So, give us some specifics about how this works, in terms of real-life situations where this practice helps folks -- where this practice or what you do helps people.
Chryl: Well, a lot of what we do is strategically look at how do we improve patient care. Some of the things that went into planning our new Cancer Center was really looking at providing multi-disciplinary care. We have had a couple of multi-disciplinary teams for breast cancer and for lung cancer for a number of years. Actually, I think we started both of those in 2015. We really wanted to be able to again have that patient-centered care.
So, let’s say that you are a patient who has just had a biopsy done for pancreatic cancer. Dr. (Nathanial) Ranney, who does endoscopic ultrasound, has done a biopsy on you and you are coming to see him at the Cancer Center to find out if you have a cancer diagnosis. What we try to do is that Dr. Ranney has already gotten back that pathology report. He knows that the patient is going to need to see a surgeon. He is going to need to see a medical oncologist. He may very well need to see a radiation oncologist. So, what happens is that when Dr. Ranney does his clinic every two weeks, then that patient is scheduled to see him. In addition to that, based on what Dr. Ranney’s perceptions are, that patient is also scheduled to see any other physician that they think might need to be involved in the patient’s treatment and care.
So, in a one-stop shop, in one morning you could see your gastrointestinal doctor. You could a surgical oncologist and you could see a medical oncologist or a radiation oncologist all at one time. So instead of having to go and have that silo affect where you are told your diagnosis, “Now I am going to send you over to medical oncology; they are down the street. Then I am going to send you to go see a surgeon; he is down the street,” everything is really in one place.
Ideally, what we are doing is the patient is staying in one room and the physicians all come to him.
Charles: Well, that is a wonderful concept. And then the idea also being just time itself, right? In the sense that this is all done in real time quickly, as opposed to making a separate appointment.
Chryl: Exactly. The other thing that I think is really important is that we have had tumor conferences, or what we call tumor boards, for a number of years. That is where people who have just been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe they have had a reoccurrence and we are trying to figure out what do we plan next. Basically, those cases are discussed at a multi-disciplinary tumor conference. So, you have pathology there to review the pathology. Radiology is there with the films. The surgeons are there. The medical oncologists, the radiation oncologists. Our psych oncologist who is at the Cancer Center to help take care of emotional needs. All of those disciplines are together to be able to look at and stage and plan a patient’s care.
So, the patient gets seen that morning, the physician says, “Hey, we are going to discuss you at tumor conference today. I will let you know what the outcome is this afternoon.” That is how quickly it is happening.
Charles: Wow! I want to make sure that we kind of drive this point home. I want to make sure I understand what you said. The doctors being all kind of there with you – not only does it get you information in the room at the time, but you are not referred on to make another appointment at another location. Kind of at your, I guess, your own direction. That is happening in real time right then.
Chryl: That is all happening in real time right then. It really does enhance the ability to have a cancer diagnosis, which is really unfortunate. But most people just want to go ahead and get started with some kind of treatment. It really enhances our ability to make a plan of care. Get that patient prepared and go ahead and get that treatment started.
Charles: And just reduces stress in the sense that, at least the fear of the unknown.
Chryl: Exactly.
Charles: OK, what else did you want to talk about today?
Chryl: Well, you know we have had navigation at the Cancer Center for a number of years. But one of the things that we are really excited about is our ability to really start to have what we call site-specific navigators.
So, if you have a lung cancer diagnosis and you are referred to the Cancer Center, there is a lung navigator who is going to be your point person. From the time that you are going through that diagnostic period to the treatment and even beyond that, that is the person who is setting up your appointments, who is meeting you at your first appointment when you come in, who is calling to check on you in-between that time where you are getting prepared to start treatment and you haven’t started and you are just worried as all get out. That person is really there to just enhance the experience and also to make sure all of your needs are met, that barriers are met. So, navigators work very closely with our social workers and our dieticians to make sure we take care of patients need as quickly as possible.
Charles: All right, that is all good stuff. Anything else before we let you escape?
Chryl: Yes, I wanted to also mention that we are patient-centered care. We are really trying to bring everything that a patient would need under one roof. We do have an integrative health department. Really, they focus on symptoms that patients are having during treatment. That includes an acupuncturist. That includes a boutique for people who lose their hair. I think really more importantly is having rehabilitation services on site: PT, occupation therapy, speech therapy, even certified lymphedema therapy is present.
So, a new concept in cancer care, when a patient is going through treatment, is called prehab. That is actually getting a patient up and functioning at a higher level. So that they are more prepared to get their body through treatment with fewer side effects. Those disciplines are all present as well.
Charles: Wow, that is a ton of information. Melissa, I know you had a big-time last Thursday at your Gala event.
Melissa: That is so true. St. Tammany Hospital Foundation has its annual cancer fundraiser called THE Gala. That event is the signature event for the Foundation to raise funds for cancer care at St. Tammany Cancer Center, which is a campus of Ochsner Medical Center. What Chryl has been talking about today is everything that has coalesced together in that one space. What that fabulous party that had that crazy disco theme was really ensuring that we are able the bring integrative oncology and acupuncture – all of those kinds of wrap around services in addition to the cancer specialists that Chryl was just describing.
Charles: All right, what have I missed? Anything else before I let you guys go? Have we covered everything that we need to?
Melissa: We sure did. Thank you so much.