UPMC McKeesport Hospital
McKeesport, PA

UPMC McKeesport Hospital
1500 Fifth Avenue
McKeesport, PA 15132
http://mckeesport.upmc.com

PI: Dwight E. Heron, MD

 

 

UPMC McKeesport was founded in 1894 and is a nonprofit acute care community hospital that serves the 200,000 residents of McKeesport and the surrounding area. The Hospital offers 216 beds for acute care patients and 56 beds for patients who need skilled nursing care. The hospital offers an array of health care services including intensive care, cardiac care and ongoing rehabilitation and educational programs for patients with cardiac, neurologic, and orthopaedic diagnoses. UPMC McKeesport is a teaching hospital, with residency programs in both family practice and internal medicine. The hospital's merger with UPMC Health System in April 1998 provides access to UPMC's state-of-the-art diagnostic and interventional capabilities and its extensive roster of specialists. The resources of UPMC have allowed UPMC McKeesport to enhance its care services to the community. This commitment is visible through the health care services the hospital provides as well as through the community-focused programs sponsored by the McKeesport Hospital Foundation.

UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC McKeesport
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) have partnered with community-based hospitals throughout the region to develop UPMC Cancer Center, one of the largest integrated community networks of cancer physicians and health care specialists in the country. UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC McKeesport allows patients to receive the highest level of cancer care without having to leave their communities. UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC McKeesport offers an array of cancer care treatment services, diagnostic services, and cancer care services, including, but not limited to: Biological Therapy Administration, Chemotherapy Administration, Radiation Therapy administration, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Computerized Tomography, Medical Sonography, Nuclear Medicine, Bone Marrow Aspiration, Bone Marrow Biopsies and Bone Marrow Smears.

Patient Population
The Radiation Oncology Community Outreach Group (ROCOG) is comprised of five institutions including: UPMC McKeesport Hospital, Jameson Memorial Hospital, UPMC Lee Hospital, Mercy Hospital, and Somerset Hospital/West Penn Allegheny Cancer Center. ROCOG is simultaneously targeting two major populations at great risk for cancer care disparities - the isolated, rural poor and the inner city African American (and poor) communities.

UPMC Lee Hospital in Johnstown, the independent Somerset Hospital in Somerset, and the Jameson Hospital in New Castle all have service areas that are populated by excesses of poor (often elderly) rural residents. These service areas are generally defined by the counties of Indiana, Cambria, Somerset, and Lawrence. The two larger cities within these service regions, Johnstown and New Castle represent areas that are typically "rust belt" regions, which historically had significant core heavy industry employers. Now these towns and surrounding rural areas have elevated unemployment rates, elevated numbers of Medicaid participants, increased number of individuals below poverty levels and of low levels of income. The other two members of ROCOG, UPMC McKeesport and Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh have service areas that contain a significant minority of urban African Americans in Allegheny County.

Grant Staff Contact Information Principal Investigator: Dwight E. Heron, MD Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology Phone: (412) 623-6721 E-mail: herond2@upmc.edu Co-Investigator Julian Proctor, MD, PhD Director, Radiation Oncology Jameson Memorial Hospital Phone: (724) 658-9001 Email: proctorj@upmc.edu Co-Investigator David Stefanik, MD Director, Radiation Oncology UPMC Lee Hospital Phone: (814) 533-0160 Email: stefanikd@upmc.edu Project Director TBD Associate Project Director, Compliance & Scientific Integrity Teresa Beigay, MA, Public ADM, ABD Public Health Phone: (814) 255-6047 Email: tbeigay@charter.net Clinical Research Coordinator Melvin Deutsch, MD Attending Radiation Oncologist UPMC McKeesport Phone: (412) 647-3600 Email: deutschm@upmc.edu Director, Program & Outcomes Evaluation Keith Morgenlander, MPH Phone: (412) 647-4810 Email: morgenlanderkh@upmc.edu Coordinator for Evaluation, Qualitative Research & Medical Ethics Edmund M. Ricci, PhD Chairman, Department of Community and Behavioral Health University of Pittsburgh Phone: (412) 624-3100 Email: emricci@pitt.edu Program Director for Professional Development & Education, TELESYNERGY(R) and Web-based Communication/Education Larry L. Schenken, PhD Phone: (412) 741-0615 Email: onclabcon01@aol.com		Program Development Consultant, Rural Outreach & Patient Transportation Initiatives Carol Ross, RN, MS Mercy Cancer Institute Phone: (412) 232-5623 Email: cross@mercy.pmhs.org Program Development Consultant, Rural Outreach & Patient Transportation Initiatives Program Coordinator Sybil McNelly, RN, MSN Somerset Hospital Phone: (814) 444-1424 Email: smcnelly@wpahs.org Patient Navigator Contacts: Lead Navigator; Coordinator of Clinical Services and QA Karen Schwaderer Phone: TBD Email: schwadererkh@upmc.edu Navigator, QA Assistant Elaine Martz Jameson Hospital Phone: (724) 656-4012 Email: emartz@jamesonhealthsystem.com Partner Institutions Washington University at St. Louis School of Medicine Carlos perez, MD Professor and Chairman Department of Radiation Oncology 4921 Parkview Place St. Louis, MO 63110 Roswell Park Cancer Institute Michael Kuettle, MD Chair and Professor Radiation Medicine Elm and Carlton Streets Buffalo, NY 14263
Collaborating Institutions Jameson Health System Julian W. Proctor, MD, PhD, Co-PI Director of Radiation Oncology Jameson Memorial Hospital 1211 Wilmington Avenue New Castle, PA 16105-2595 Mercy Health System Michael Daugherty, MD Director of Radiation Oncology Senior Radiation Oncology Clinical Investigator Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh 1400 Locust Street Pittsburgh, PA 15219-5166 Somerset Hospital Barry Tepperman, MD, MBA, FACR Director of Radiation Oncology Senior Radiation Oncology Clinical Investigator Somerset Hospital 225 South Center Avenue Somerset, PA 15501-2088 UPMC Lee Regional Hospital David Stefanik, MD, Co-PI Co-Director of Radiation Oncology Department John P. Murtha Pavilion 339 Somerset Street Johnstown, PA 15901 West Penn-Allegheny Cancer Center David S. Parda, MD Director of Radiation Oncology Allegheny General Hospital 320 East North Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15212 University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Ronald B. Herberman, MD UPMC Cancer Pavilion 5150 Center Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Cancer Disparities Research Partnership Program Project Summary

Project Title: UPMC McKeesport/ROCOG Radiation Oncology Minorities Outreach Program.

A number of barriers, both real and perceived, tend to hinder the recruitment of patients, and by extension, minorities and poor people into clinical oncology trials at community centers. In order to initiate the opportunity to participate in clinical research at the community level, we have developed a collaborative regional network. The Radiation Oncology Community Outreach Group (ROCOG), based at UPMC McKeesport Hospital that will deploy infrastructure resources for widespread, clinically and demographically disparate populations. The Radiation Oncology Community Outreach Group (ROCOG) is comprised of five institutions including: UPMC McKeesport Hospital, Jameson Memorial Hospital, UPMC Lee Hospital, Mercy Hospital, and Somerset Hospital/West Penn Allegheny Cancer Center. Project goals include increasing clinical compliance, protocol recruitment and protocol retention within these populations, operationalizing a collaborative model of community-based research, testing the efficacy of patient identification, engagement and outreach models and using a comprehensive outcomes measurement system to ensure care quality and monitor treatment disparities.

This proposal presents a number of other unique approaches and strengths. Several potential academic "mentors" have provided their endorsement, including the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Allegheny General Hospital Cancer Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University at St. Louis. The proposal also has the support of several well-recognized minority health initiatives within western Pennsylvania to assist us in outreach and disparities education. Our outreach strategies are tailored to urban or to rural areas, and include use of a new "fast track" patient identification function within Tumor Registry, Patient Navigator system, Protocol Nurse and contracted community outreach agencies. The proposed clinical pilots concerning breast conservation, colorectal and bone mets reflect locally specific high burden of disease within minority populations. An integrated outcomes monitoring system using Tumor Registry & Record & Verify data is also proposed as a platform for a comprehensive CQI program. Finally, comprehensive patient and professional education will be provided through a combination of peer outreach, WEB-based programming and through a mobile application of the NCI TELESYERNGY® system.

ROCOG Patient Navigator Program

A patient-facilitator relationship should be established as soon as practical following diagnosis. As such, we will develop a system to identify and refer new cases to our patient navigators as a new function of each facility's Tumor Registry. The first unique feature of the program will be the early identification of newly diagnosed patients through the tumor registry. Typical tumor registry case development is an information collection process which occurs after treatment has ceased; the NAACCR time standard for building a complete case is 6 months following the final treatment within the patient's episode of care. Practical use of the data may then potentially wait for one year following diagnosis. We propose that the Tumor Registry be utilized for a new, active patient care function. Specifically, our operational plan will create a system wherein the Registry builds a shell "case" within 5 working days of definitive cancer diagnosis. For our purposes, it is only essential to have the patient's basic demographic information and diagnosis to have sufficient information for our Patient Navigators to move forward with proactive patient contact. The internal patient Navigation function is also coordinated with at least one key contracted community agency, identified within each hospital's service area, which has a high level of credibility within the target populations and which can contribute to patient education, community outreach services and home/community based supplemental service coordination (child care, senior care, transportation, chore & shopping service, etc.). For example, the Center for Healthy Hearts & Souls will serve as this primary agency within the urban Pittsburgh service areas. The Patient Navigator will also be responsible for communication with the patient's primary care physician and, preferably, will obtain the PCP's active support and permission to call the patient. We would like the PCP to introduce the Patient Navigator function to the patient at the time when the patient is initially told of the cancer diagnosis; ideally, the Patient Navigator could even be present for part of that meeting, or available by conference call if the discussion occurs by phone. However, if the PCP is not available or unwilling to be part of this process, the Patient Navigator will still contact the patient, offering generic help with education, transportation, and appointment scheduling with the follow-up physician. If a positive relationship can be established between Navigator and patient within the first month following diagnosis, we believe that the Navigator/Community Agency Team will have a high level of success in avoiding patient attrition, especially during those "hand-off" points.