Covenant’s new cancer center

State-of-the-art technology, new approach to care help patients deal with disease
To a relatively healthy person, walking into a medical clinic or office makes little or no impression. But for someone undergoing treatments for cancer, it’s the little things that count.
That’s why Covenant Healthcare’s new Center for Cancer Care at 7410 W. Rawson Ave. in Franklin doesn’t look or feel like a medical office.
For one thing, the lobby is bathed in natural light from windows running along the top of the walls. The biggest difference is that cancer survivors helped plan the facility and clued the architects and administrators in to details that escape those who haven’t dealt with cancer treatments.
“Most of the time, architects and administrators and doctors miss the boat,” said Tim Richman, regional vice president of Covenant Healthcare. “It looks nice, but when we ask the patients, it turns out to be not as convenient. It’s not as easy for the patients to access all of the resources. The survivors have helped us understand that.”
The use of color takes away the usual bland, sterile feel of a medical facility. And there is a theme of water throughout the facility that helps take the focus off of the disease the patients are battling. Patients are greeted in the front lobby by a water scene painted by cancer survivors. And Richman said a waterfall would be installed in the front lobby soon. And as patients wait for their radiation or chemotherapy treatments, they sit in a room featuring a large fish tank.
“It’s soothing and it’s something to pay attention to,” Richman says of the role of water at the cancer center. “It’s like asking why do people put their homes near lakes? You could say ‘skiing,’ but really, they like to look at it. Something’s always changing.”
The center also features state-of-the-art radiation technology that looks like it belongs on the set of a “Star Wars” movie. And while the imaging equipment can map out a tumor in three dimensions to make treatments more effective and precise, the center’s planners didn’t forget about the human element of the treatment. As a patient lies on the table looking at the ceiling, illuminated pictures of Wisconsin outdoor scenes are there to take his or her mind off of reality, or at least it gives them something to look at rather than ceiling tiles — another suggestion made by the cancer survivors.
“Is that a ‘Wow — that’s amazing’ thing?” says Richman of the ceiling pictures. “No, but it’s a small detail that makes a difference in the patient’s experience. And we also put some wood in the ceiling versus cold metal — something that you traditionally see in a medical facility.”
Another innovation the center incorporates is having its radiologist-oncologists and medical-oncologists located next to each other. Many times, Richman said, the doctors from each discipline meet with their patients together, which helps in the coordination of the patient’s care.
“You have a couple of things happening here,” says Richman. “One is the radiation-oncologist is assigned here and the medical-oncologist is also here. They see each other probably 20 times a day so they don’t have to call each other, and they have more time for their patients.
“The second thing is, for the patient, they don’t have to get in a car and drive to this hospital and to that clinic,” Richman says. “It doesn’t seem like rocket science, but we don’t do enough of it. It’s very convenient for our patients just to come here in one stop.”
The center also has nutritionists, social workers and spiritual counselors working with the medical staff. Other touches include individual lockers, terry cloth robes, Internet access, a resource library and free wheelchair-accessible van service to and from the center.
Eventually, the designers and administrators want to install a “healing garden” just off an open room where patients receive chemotherapy treatments. The room itself is surrounded by glass with a view of the woods behind the center.
“My pipe dream would be to enclose it (the healing garden) and have patients receive their treatments in the garden year round,” Richman said. “We’re making progress on that.”
The$6.5 million center opened on Oct. 3 and has already drawn more patients than Richman expected. Covenant is currently planning a similar facility near Elmbrook Memorial Hospital in Brookfield.
“This particular site has been a big learning experience for me personally because it’s gotten me closer to what I would want if that patient was me,” Richman said. “One out of every three people has some experience with cancer, and when you say ‘cancer’ almost everyone jumps to a fatal conclusion. What we’re trying to do is, when you walk through that front door, we’re trying to get rid of that fatal piece right away.”
November 23, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee