Storm triggers urgent race across U.S. to get treatment to cancer patient
Jan. 5, 2014 5:40 PM
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/...atment-cancer-patient?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1
Winter storm Hercules caused accidents, delayed flights and forced millions in the eastern half of the country to do a lot of shoveling.
But the widespread storm affected a local medical practice in a unique way. The storm sparked an intense cross-country scramble to get a time-sensitive treatment to a patient battling advanced prostate cancer.
For 24 hours, doctors and nurses at Poughkeepsie-based Premier Medical Group worked around the clock with a drug maker, courier services, a local hospital and a helicopter pilot to deliver the medicine just minutes before the deadline to administer it expired.
“There are a lot of different medical entities in the Hudson Valley,” said Dr. Evan Goldfischer, a urologist and co-chief executive officer of Premier Medical, “and here we are — big snow storm, crisis situation, major pharmaceutical company, one of the major medical centers, one of the largest medical practices — and everybody wanted to put everything aside and get it done.”
The tale began on New Year’s Eve, when the patient — who was not identified because of federal health privacy laws — went through a procedure to have white blood cells removed from his blood and shipped to a Seattle laboratory.
The lab is owned by Dendreon Corp., manufacturer of Provenge. The FDA-approved therapy reprograms immune cells to attack advanced prostate cancer. Each treatment is customized with an individual’s white blood cells.
The process — from extraction to infusion of the modified cells — must be completed within 72 hours, or the therapy is rendered ineffective.
In such cases, a patient would then have to undergo the extraction and infusion process again.
The deadline for this patient’s treatment was 1:01 p.m. Friday.
Each treatment costs $30,000, Goldfischer said. He said the therapy is covered by Medicare and most insurance plans, in part or completely.
In this case, neither the patient nor his insurance company was responsible for the cost of the treatment, Goldfischer said, until the medicine arrived and the bag containing the cells was spiked to begin the infusion. Until that time, he said, the therapy was the responsibility of the drug maker.
The reprogrammed cells left Seattle late Thursday night, headed for Baltimore. However, the storm forced the flight to be diverted to Charlotte, N.C.
The medicine landed in Charlotte at 4 a.m. Friday. A second flight got it as far as Baltimore.
The treatment was then driven to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where a helicopter was dispatched to shuttle it to the Hudson Valley.
Goldfischer said the initial drop-off point was Stewart International Airport in New Windsor.
But with the clock ticking, medical personnel at Premier knew that a closer landing point needed to be secured.
That turned out to be the helipad at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. One of Premier’s offices is on the Vassar Brothers campus.
“I was anxious for the patient,” said Kim Secord, a registered nurse and clinical research manager at Premier. Being late “would have then made him have to repeat the process that he had just gone through.”
The helicopter landed at 12:43 p.m., 18 minutes before the deadline.
Secord received the medicine and rushed it to the office — with 10 minutes to spare.
“I’ve been a nurse for 20 years,” Secord said, “and this is one of my top five nursing experiences. The teamwork — it was not one entity; it was all entities working for one purpose, which is the patient.”
Jan. 5, 2014 5:40 PM
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/...atment-cancer-patient?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1
Winter storm Hercules caused accidents, delayed flights and forced millions in the eastern half of the country to do a lot of shoveling.
But the widespread storm affected a local medical practice in a unique way. The storm sparked an intense cross-country scramble to get a time-sensitive treatment to a patient battling advanced prostate cancer.
For 24 hours, doctors and nurses at Poughkeepsie-based Premier Medical Group worked around the clock with a drug maker, courier services, a local hospital and a helicopter pilot to deliver the medicine just minutes before the deadline to administer it expired.
“There are a lot of different medical entities in the Hudson Valley,” said Dr. Evan Goldfischer, a urologist and co-chief executive officer of Premier Medical, “and here we are — big snow storm, crisis situation, major pharmaceutical company, one of the major medical centers, one of the largest medical practices — and everybody wanted to put everything aside and get it done.”
The tale began on New Year’s Eve, when the patient — who was not identified because of federal health privacy laws — went through a procedure to have white blood cells removed from his blood and shipped to a Seattle laboratory.
The lab is owned by Dendreon Corp., manufacturer of Provenge. The FDA-approved therapy reprograms immune cells to attack advanced prostate cancer. Each treatment is customized with an individual’s white blood cells.
The process — from extraction to infusion of the modified cells — must be completed within 72 hours, or the therapy is rendered ineffective.
In such cases, a patient would then have to undergo the extraction and infusion process again.
The deadline for this patient’s treatment was 1:01 p.m. Friday.
Each treatment costs $30,000, Goldfischer said. He said the therapy is covered by Medicare and most insurance plans, in part or completely.
In this case, neither the patient nor his insurance company was responsible for the cost of the treatment, Goldfischer said, until the medicine arrived and the bag containing the cells was spiked to begin the infusion. Until that time, he said, the therapy was the responsibility of the drug maker.
The reprogrammed cells left Seattle late Thursday night, headed for Baltimore. However, the storm forced the flight to be diverted to Charlotte, N.C.
The medicine landed in Charlotte at 4 a.m. Friday. A second flight got it as far as Baltimore.
The treatment was then driven to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, where a helicopter was dispatched to shuttle it to the Hudson Valley.
Goldfischer said the initial drop-off point was Stewart International Airport in New Windsor.
But with the clock ticking, medical personnel at Premier knew that a closer landing point needed to be secured.
That turned out to be the helipad at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. One of Premier’s offices is on the Vassar Brothers campus.
“I was anxious for the patient,” said Kim Secord, a registered nurse and clinical research manager at Premier. Being late “would have then made him have to repeat the process that he had just gone through.”
The helicopter landed at 12:43 p.m., 18 minutes before the deadline.
Secord received the medicine and rushed it to the office — with 10 minutes to spare.
“I’ve been a nurse for 20 years,” Secord said, “and this is one of my top five nursing experiences. The teamwork — it was not one entity; it was all entities working for one purpose, which is the patient.”