Avera Cancer Institute While located at six regional centers and 40 outreach sites, the Avera Cancer Institute is one institute, dedicated to providing the best possible care, wherever patients happen to walk through the door. “We make a brand promise that if you come to one of our sites, you will experience Avera’s approach to cancer care,” said Dave Kapaska, DO, Regional President and CEO of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center, and the administrative leader of the Avera cancer service line. Avera cancer services also are led by Michael E. Peterson, MD, Radiation Oncologist with Avera Medical Group Radiation Oncology Yankton; and David L. Elson, MD, Medical Oncologist with Avera Medical Group Oncology & Hematology Sioux Falls. Of the five cancer centers in South Dakota that are nationally accredited through the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC), four are part of the Avera Cancer Institute. “For the term ‘Avera cancer care’ to mean something, it needs to be consistent,” Dr. Peterson said. “Physicians are using the best current thinking in developing care plans, and the best evidence-based treatment. Clinical guidelines and pathways are consistent throughout the organization. Patients have a seamless experience. They are treated compassionately as a human being – not a number.” The Avera Cancer Institute concept of six regional centers means that every patient who comes to Avera for cancer care has access to the same high level of services. At some sites,
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Avera Cancer Institute
Summer 2014
MANY LOCATIONS, ONE AVERA
transportation and telehealth help make this possible. Avera has that capability, thanks to its reach electronically and virtually. Justifying having cancer care equipment like the Versa HD involves having a population of 1 million. That means there can be only one of these machines in the entire system, in the name of good stewardship and best use of resources. Yet if a patient who lives in a remote location would benefit from radiosurgery for an inoperable tumor, that patient has access to this type of care through the Avera system. “It’s as simple as this: You walk into our place, you’re going to get the best,” Dr. Kapaska said. Some health systems bring all their cancer care resources to one city or location, and ask all patients to drive to that location, regardless of where they live. This works well in a geographic area with patients who live in a 50-mile radius. Yet Avera’s service area encompasses a 250-mile radius.
Services that most people need are available through regional centers, to minimize travel as much as possible. Traveling long distances is regarded as the exception, not the rule.
“At all locations, patients have access to the technical aspects of care, and the human supportive elements of care. We personalize care for what patients need. This involves all their needs – physical, emotional and spiritual, as well as the family’s needs,” Dr. Peterson said.