HeadlineThe glow of the first morning

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Alliance staff welcome first patients on opening day of outpatient

Dr. Marc Stewart, Alliance medical director, keeps the assembly line going as furniture is moved into the new Alliance outpatient clinic building shortly after midnight on Monday. Photo by Jim Ball

Knee-high sandwich boards stood at key corners throughout the Day Campus. Emblazoned with arrows and the letters "SCCA," the signs pointed the way to a new era in cancer care for the Pacific Northwest.

After more than two years of planning and construction, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance outpatient clinic opened its doors Monday. In the early-morning darkness, the glass-and-brick building glowed like a seven-story candle. It would have been hard to miss even without the signs.

First patient

Barbara Garrott and her husband, John, rose at 5 a.m. to make the trip from Bonney Lake. Barbara is being treated for mesothelioma - a solid-tumor cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Arriving at 7:08 a.m. for a blood draw and an appointment with her doctor, she became the clinic's first patient. Prior to this appointment, Barbara was undergoing treatment at the University of Washington Cancer Clinic.

"Wouldn't you know it, we get the first day," Barbara said good-naturedly after an initial mixup, "They thought we had to register as new patients, but we don't."

"I imagine on the first day there's bound to be some confusion," said John.

Aleana Waite, director of quality and risk management, said the clinic anticipated there might be a few situations like that.

"We have a lot of folks on deck to do everything from helping patients and staff who seem lost to just being friendly," she said. "And we have a good triage system for problems that is working well."

Clad in a white lab coat, Dr. Marc Stewart, the Alliance's medical director, welcomed some of the first staff and patients through the doors early Monday.

Excitement of new building

Like many others working for the Alliance, Dr. Robert Witherspoon, outpatient transplant medical director, said he was excited to be working in the new building. He also said he was looking forward to the challenges and opportunities presented by blending the staffs of the three founding institutions.

Knowing at least a few surprises will arise during the clinic's debut, staff members from the Alliance, the Hutch, UW and Children's are meeting every morning from 7:30 to 9 to iron out the previous day's wrinkles.

"All levels of caregivers are invited to attend, and we will problem-solve rapidly and effectively based on the broad representation of people we have," Stewart said.

Members of the Shouse family, who previously were going to the Hutchinson Center's Transplant Clinic, started Monday at the Alliance outpatient clinic and planned to end the day at the Alliance inpatient unit at UWMC, where 29-year-old Nathan Shouse was awaiting a stem-cell transplant that evening.

Nathan was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia last July while on his honeymoon in Hawaii.

His sister, 24-year-old Sarah of Tacoma, was her brother's donor. Nathan's and Sarah's parents, Dick and Kathy Shouse of Spanaway, sat quietly with Sarah in the fifth-floor waiting area of the outpatient clinic. Sarah had just received two shots in preparation for her apheresis appointment - the clinic's first.

"It's certainly a big day for the clinic staff," Dick said, "but it's a big day for Nathan and Sarah, too."

Harry and Nancy Horman of Seattle had no complaints about their experience during the clinic's first day. Harry, who is being treated for prostate cancer, came to have blood drawn.

'Real punctual'

"They've been real punctual," Nancy said. "This is kind of amazing."

Like many other Alliance patients who previously were treated at other sites, the Hormans must learn their way around a new facility. They had been going to UW Cancer Clinic.

"When you go to a place for a while, you get comfortable," Nancy said, "but we'll figure this out pretty quickly."

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What is the Alliance?

The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is a jointly governed affiliate of the Hutchinson Center, the University of Washington and Children's Hospital and Medical Center.

The three institutions are combining their resources to create a single comprehensive center for the care of oncology patients. Their goal is to advance the level of cancer care and research by offering the latest treatments available.

The new outpatient clinic is phase III of the Alliance. Preceding it were a new pediatric inpatient unit at Children's and three new or remodeled adult inpatient units at UW Medical Center.

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