Jefferson Healthcare is proud to connect with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) Peninsula, an established state-of-the-art radiation oncology clinic located in Poulsbo on the Kitsap Peninsula. Providers see patients at Jefferson Healthcare in Port Townsend and arrange for them to receive treatment at the Poulsbo center. Follow up after treatment can be done in Port Townsend as well. SCCA Peninsula is the only site west of Seattle to earn full accreditation from the American College of Radiology (ACR), the leading organization in establishing a quality standard for radiation oncology facilities. SCCA Peninsula’s physicians are a team of nationally recognized experts working together to deliver the most effective radiation oncology treatment for their patients.
Our oncology department is accredited by the Commission on Cancer (CoC). CoC accreditation provides value through improved patient outcomes across all domains of care: access and service, satisfaction and well-being, quality of care and cancer outcomes. CoC accredited cancer programs are dedicated to providing the best in patient-centered care.
Partnering with Western State NCORP in Denver, Colorado, Jefferson Healthcare now offers clinical trials to for patients. Clinical research advances science and ensures patient care approaches the highest possible level of quality.
A team of board-certified oncology physicians and oncology certified registered nurses provide comprehensive cancer care, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, blood products and other treatments. Our team of dedicated cancer care experts provide a wide spectrum of care and support services, from breast cancer surgery to chemotherapy and lung cancer screenings. The accredited cancer center allows patients to stay close to the people and places they love while receiving treatment. Patients that need to be transferred will be sent to Seattle (Harborview, Swedish or Virginia Mason).
Schedule:
Clinic is open Monday – Friday 8am – 5pm. 1st patient is seen around 9am, and last patient is seen around 4pm. Providers are scheduled for 10-hour days, but only 8 hours of patient contact and 2 hours of administrative duties each day. The Medica Director position will be 75% Clinical and 25% Administrative. One of the most appealing aspects of the position is the quality of life offered, and how everyone respects your time when you are not in the clinic. As Dr. Abrams said, “When you are off, you are off. You don’t have to check your emails or get phone calls when you are not working or on call. They respect your time and allow you to separate work from personal life, which is really refreshing.”
During the 8 hours of patient contact, provides will see 2-4 new patients per day, and 8-10 follow-up visits depending on the acuity. Providers are able to essentially set their own schedule and have a lot of say in how long the visit will be. The basic template is 40-60 minutes for initial consults and 20-30 minutes for follow-up consults with physicians. All physicians are provided an MA to work directly with them and assist with patient care.
Ideally, we want our physicians to do all new consults and follow-up visits on patients they determine are high need. All other follow-up visits will be conducted by our Nurse Practitioners, who also provide oversight on all Oncology patients receiving infusions.
The Oncologists have no inpatient responsibilities at all. Any patient that presents in the ED will be admitted and managed by our hospitalist team. If they have questions, they will call the on call Oncologist to consult but there is really not a situation when they have to go see the patient. Any circumstances that are beyond the hospitalist scope of practice, will be transferred to one of the hospitals in Seattle. Directing care and symptom management over the phone
We are not in inpatient service center, any patients that need inpatient care are transferred to Seattle. Our ED will do the urgent work up, consult with the Oncology team and manage the patient transfer.
Medical Director Needs:
Enjoy establishing relationships with their patients, the majority of the time we are the one that see’s them for all of their Chemo treatments. We don’t have residents or specialists that see patients, we are their one Oncologist.
We are looking for someone with experience building a program by implementing workflow, systems and processes, in a collaborative way. Good with communication and has experience with the bridge between administration and physicians. They must enjoy talking to patients and engaging with them, as this is a very close nit community.
In regards to working with hospital leadership and Administration Dr. Murphy said “Admin is great, they do a good job working with us, not against us and they do try to make our life as easy as possible. We can actually practice medicine here, we don’t have administration dictating what we do, we just do what we were trained to do and take care of patients. They stay out of the clinical aspect completely.”
This role will also be part of the contract review team, do the yearly accreditation, be a cancer liaison, be the Cancer Committee Chair, Run the bi-weekly tumor boards and help with process improvement. In general, the Medical Director position is going to be the anchor of the clinic. As the only full-time provider, the Cancer Center will revolve around you.
Types of Cancers Seen & What gets transferred out
You get a wide variety of cases here. Dr. Abrams said “I have two patients with Esophageal Cancer, then I have a Rectal Cancer, an Anal Cancer, a multiple myeloma, someone with benign anemia, a breast cancer patient and a bladder cancer patient today”.
This is going to be a very bread-n-butter oncology program with a lot of Breast, Colon, Lung and Prostate cancer. They do not see a lot of malignant Hematology like Stem Cell, Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and Autotransplant. There is no Allo but we can do follow-up from those once we get them back from Seattle. Our General Surgeons do a lot of the Breast Surgery cases, but will refer to Seattle cases that are above their acuity level.
Radiation Oncology patients will be referred to Olympic Medical Cancer Center in Sequim, or to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in Poulsbo. They will receive their chemotherapy in Port Townsend, but the Radiation Oncology will be sent out. Surgical Oncology is sent to Swedish, SCCA & Virginia Mason.
Tumor Board
Twice a month, mostly remote (Microsoft Teams). Rad Onc, Hem/Onc, GS, Pathologists, Radiologists. SCCA & OMC providers join the call as well
Clinical Trails
We get access to most of the open trials on the West Coast. We partner with the Seattle facilities and our patients can participate in those trials.