GALION – Cancer patients living in and around Crawford County will now have local access to care.
Avita Health System and Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center have launched a formal affiliation to expand access to oncology services and highly specialized treatments for patients in north central Ohio.
Under the affiliation, Cleveland Clinic cancer specialists will work onsite in Avita’s Galion and Bucyrus Hospital clinics, in addition to its Mansfield location.
One of Cleveland Clinic’s specialists, Dr. Nausheen Ahmed of the Clinic’s Mansfield oncology team, will now see patients a couple days a week at Avita’s Galion location.
“One of the goals and visions of Cleveland Clinic is to get care closer to your home,” Ahmed explained. “Cleveland Clinic has had a presence in Mansfield since 2013, but we have this opportunity to go even further into the community.
“By partnering with Avita, we the physicians and cancer specialists, are going out to Galion and Bucyrus to help the people around that community.”
Dr. Ahmed is a medical oncologist specializing in breast and gastrointestinal cancers at Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center in Mansfield.
She explained that because of the connection she has with Cleveland Clinic cancer tumor boards and care paths, her patients can benefit from the expertise of that team without having to leave their local community.
“Cancer can bring chaos in your life, for anyone going through it,” she said. “Just to hear that diagnosis changes things, and you’ve gone suddenly from being free to do whatever you want to where you’re bound to come in and see doctors, to get chemotherapies, and needing to go in for urgent visits.
“It’s really hard to travel an hour and a half to get the best care, so why not get that 10 minutes away from where you are? It makes a huge difference, and I know patients really appreciate having it much closer to home.”
Cancer specialists at Avita and Cleveland Clinic will consult and collaborate on patient treatment plans for all types of cancers, including those that are rare and complex.
Avita cancer patients’ cases can be reviewed by Cleveland Clinic’s tumor boards, a team of doctors and other health care providers who meet regularly to discuss and share knowledge, and Cleveland Clinic will offer support to Avita as it implements care pathways.
“Partnering with Avita is going to give us a chance to serve more people and give them better quality of care,” Ahmed said. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity.
“I know the staff at Avita in Galion and Bucyrus appreciate the increased quality and education that we’re bringing.”
Leadership within both health systems appreciates it as well.
“The collaboration with Cleveland Clinic allows us to better serve our patients by offering greater access to top-ranked cancer specialists,” said Jerry Morasko, CEO of Avita Health System. “We are always looking for new ways to heighten the patient experience in our communities by providing expert care, close to home. For us, affiliating with Cleveland Clinic is a natural fit.”
“Our research has shown that access, or getting cancer patients into treatment without delay, is associated with better outcomes,” added Brian Bolwell, M.D., chairman of Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute. “This new affiliation with Avita will allow us to expand access to cancer services and specialized treatments for more cancer patients in Ohio.”
For Dr. Ahmed, the chance to better integrate into the community where she lives is also a huge gain.
“I do feel there’s a huge population we serve in Galion, and until now they were looking to Mansfield for their care,” she said. “A lot of people from Galion and Bucyrus were coming to Mansfield for care, so now many of my patients in Mansfield are more than happy to see me in Galion.”
