The Spirit of Collaboration

Local health systems serve cancer patients together

In healthcare, the phrase “continuity of care” is often used. PubMed.gov says, "Continuity of care is concerned with the quality of care over time." It's a responsibility we all share. Each decision we make, big or small, has a direct impact on our patients, both now and in the future.

In 2023, your local healthcare leaders joined forces to enhance access to cancer care, a move that directly benefits you, our valued patients. This collaboration, which expands upon the existing relationship between UH Seidman Cancer Center, Firelands Regional Medical Center, and Magruder Hospital, now includes Fisher-Titus Medical Center and NOMS Healthcare. As a result, you can now receive high-quality cancer care in the comfort of your local communities in Sandusky, Port Clinton, and Norwalk. This partnership also ensures that our local healthcare providers have easy access to a wide range of services and clinical trials offered by UH Seidman Cancer Center, further enhancing the quality of care you receive.

“Cancer care is so academic and dynamic that oncology departments in small or medium-sized hospitals tend to struggle to keep up,” said Timothy Adamowicz, D.O., an oncologist with NOMS. “We have tied together each entity’s program to minimize redundancy and maximize our ability to provide the highest level of care without requiring patients to travel to Cleveland.” Travel can be challenging and exhausting, especially for regular chemo or radiation appointments.

According to the National Cancer Institute, “Although an estimated 17%-20% of the U.S. population resides in rural areas, only 3% of medical oncologists practice in rural communities, and over 70% of counties in the U.S. do not have medical oncologists.” This collaboration will strengthen access to cancer care in the greater Sandusky region. “It also allows us to provide the same standard of care as major academic centers but with a much more patient-focused model at a lower overall cost of care,” Dr. Adamowicz explained.

"With this exciting collaboration, I think most cancer patients would be surprised to learn that a TEAM of physicians reviews their individual cases," states Norleena Poynter, M.D., radiation oncologist. "Each of these physicians brings their respective academic training from institutions across the country and their years of experience treating. While our patients may meet face-to-face with a single medical or radiation oncologist here at Firelands, their treatment plans are being analyzed, discussed, and refined with consulting specialists at UH, Cleveland Clinic, Toledo ProMedica, Mayo, Duke, Memorial Sloan Kettering, to name a few. Their cases are assessed for available clinical trial enrollment as well."

Dr. Poynter added, "If our team of oncologists finds that there are treatments or imaging modalities that our patients are having to travel for, we work together with the Firelands administration to assess the ability to bring these modalities here locally."

Dr. Adamowicz outlined a few direct benefits the entire cancer care team has come to realize following the collaboration, which formed in the summer of 2023:

• The pulmonary team can now use endobronchial ultrasound for minimally invasive screening and diagnosis of lung cancers and testing lymph nodes without having to go into surgery.
• The radiation department, led by Norleena Poynter, M.D., and multihospital radiology and urology specialists, have been able to adopt prostate PMSA pet and new cutting-edge radiation techniques to detect prostate cancer.
• The Center for Breast Care, with Fred Itzkowitz, D.O., and his colleagues, has raised the level of their breast care program through regularly scheduled tumor board meetings and literature discussions to the level of top-tier academic centers.

Coordinating cancer care and preventive screening services is what the rural communities need most. That’s what the collaboration aims to achieve. In simple terms, you don’t have to drive an hour east or west to receive quality cancer care, and the network of clinicians and convenient office locations make cancer care more available to you. By increasing community screening rates, earlier diagnoses will lead to enhanced outcomes.

“Now that we are all working together,” Dr. Adamowicz explained, “we have laid the groundwork to bring additional services and specialties to our region.” A merger of services like this is rare and will set a precedent for independent hospitals working together to unify efforts. In the long term, this effort will help cancer patients live longer and healthier lives.