Saint Francis Hospital is proud to continue its long-standing commitment to women’s health through the ever-expanding Karl J. Krapek, Sr. Comprehensive Women’s Health Center. Established in 2014, the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center was built on the hospital’s system’s long legacy of community trust and patient-centered care.
The roughly 175 to 200 women who come through the center’s doors each day are receiving top-quality care by some of the best specialty physicians in the state, who work collaboratively to optimize their patients’ care. Their care is also supported by the highly regarded convenience factor exclusive to Saint Francis. Free valet parking upon arrival is the first sign that the center is something different. The on-site nurse navigators who coordinate patients’ care are another.
“We saw a chance here to create something special for women in our community,” said registered nurse Laura Bailey, executive director of Women and Infants Services at Saint Francis. “We looked at the different types of care each woman needs through the aging process and the ways we could deliver that care in the most efficient way.”
The result? An, innovative facility within Saint Francis Hospital where women benefit from the Maximilian E. and Marion O. Hoffman Foundation Breast Health Center, the Karl J. Krapek, Sr. Comprehensive Women’s Infusion Center, a team of Gynecologic Oncology and Urogynecology specialists, the Women’s Heart Program, and the hospital’s Center for Integrative Medicine, all in one location.
These hubs of expertise — all under one umbrella — allow women to take advantage of a vast range of services: from breast biopsies to ultrasonography to massage therapy to holistic nutrition, lactation support, genetic counseling and gynecologic oncology support groups, to name just a few.
“The Comprehensive Women’s Health Center’s singular location means women can access breast cancer screening mammograms and diagnostic services from a team of fellowship-trained breast surgeons, restore their pelvic health or treat cancers of the reproductive tract. All while in the care of our nationally recognized specialists in gynecologic oncology and female pelvic medicine, simultaneously receiving supportive services, furthering the healing process, through our Center for Integrative Medicine,” said Dr. John Rodis, president of Saint Francis Hospital. “The ability to receive each of these services in a single location is truly a unique experience.”
The high-level care practiced at the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center does not only focus on diagnoses and treatment, but on educating women about preventive care and wellness. The center’s physicians look to partner with patients’ primary-care providers to balance and strengthen patients’ long term health care efforts.
Anchoring the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center are the Trinity Health Of New England Medical Group, including Gynecologic Oncology, Urogynecology, and Breast Plastic Surgery. Women requiring treatment, needing surgery or recovering from gynecologic cancers, pelvic-floor disorders or incontinence benefit not only from the outstanding quality of care at the center, but also its innovation — such as minimally invasive, robotic surgeries — all within the same location where they have been receiving other services through the years.
Same-day results
The center’s team of experts understand that information, especially in a timely fashion, is power. Therefore, the center focuses heavily on integration across all channels by streamlining the process of breast-cancer prevention, treatment and recovery, beginning the process with same-day mammogram results.
“Two decades ago, no institution in the state was allowing patients to have their mammogram, get their results and see a surgeon, if necessary, all on the same day,” explains breast surgeon Dr. Kristen Zarfos, medical director of the Karl J. Krapek, Sr. Comprehensive Women’s Health Center at Saint Francis.
The same-day model started as a revolutionary idea. It was put into practice by a team of leaders in the Hoffman Breast Health Center at Saint Francis and has since become the standard of care at the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center, where the Hoffman Breast Health Center is now located.
“It reduces a patient’s fear and improves their overall experience,” says Dr. Zarfos, “We’ve made this commitment to women’s health. Saint Francis set the standard years ago. We didn’t abandon it over time; we’ve enhanced it.”
And it isn’t just patients who have taken notice of the center’s timely results using the very latest in imaging technology.
In 2018, the American College of Radiology designated Saint Francis Hospital’s Hoffman Breast Health Center as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence. Assets such as 3-D breast tomosynthesis imaging, ultrasound elastography, stereotactic image-guided breast biopsies and bone-density scans led to this recognition. The Hoffman Breast Health Center is also accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers and for several consecutive years has earned the Women’s Choice Award for breast health.
“We saw a chance here to create something special for women in our community.” – Laura Bailey, executive director of Women and Infant Services
Individualized Cancer Care
Like many cancers a woman may face, treating breast cancer requires multidisciplinary care. It may require any combination of surgery, radiology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, psychology, social work, genetic counselling and more, all of which the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center and Saint Francis is able to provide for patients. Doctors at the center also have access to 3D mammography, ultrasounds, MRIs, chemotherapy and labs for onsite testing.
“Breast cancer and its treatment is becoming more and more individualized each year,” Dr. Zarfos points out. “We can test the genetic makeup of the cancer cells, and we can consult with the other providers to decide what the best method will be.”
As part of this multidisciplinary approach to cancer care, patients receive a tailor made treatment plan to meet their individual needs. They have access to specialized oncologists, state-of-the-art clinical trials when applicable, and a disease specific care team through the Smilow Cancer Hospital also located on the Saint Francis main campus.
“It’s really about wanting to earn your trust. It’s a priority of the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center, of the Hoffman Breast Health Center, of the team of breast surgeons I work alongside, Dr. Edward White, Dr. Whitney Young, and Dr. Christine Rizk, and of the entire team of providers within the center, who collectively set the bar high. Each of us wants to be treated as an individual, as a whole person,” says Dr. Zarfos, “and if I step back as a woman, as a patient, I would say to myself, ‘this hospital really cares about me’.”
Mind, body and spirit
At the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center, integrative medicine — which takes the whole patient and her lifestyle into account — helps patients on their healing journey, comforting them through cancer or guiding them toward optimal wellness. The center’s modalities include massage therapy, art therapy, energy therapy, meditation, acupuncture and reflexology.
Sharon O’Brien is founder and program director of the Center of Integrative Medicine at Saint Francis, as well as the Comprehensive Women’s Health Center’s assistant director.
Unique programs are offered in both group setting and one-on-one so that they are tailored to the needs of the patient, explained O’Brien. She went on to say that physician-guided stress management, classes in how to heal faster after surgery, sessions on healing through music and drumming circles are just a few of the programs which bring together patients who are going through similar health challenges.
Additionally, the center’s serene, spa-like atmosphere, aesthetic beauty, and thoughtful touches add to the all-encompassing mission to ease the patient’s overall experience. A place where instead of just being handed a hospital gown, patients have warm robes to help them feel comfortable and secure as they are escorted from various exam or treatment rooms within the center— a far cry from the typical medical setting.
Where a myriad of elements of comprehensive care come together to form a successful model, the center’s main goal is simple, said Bailey.
“Women are known to put everyone around them first, letting their own needs fall by the wayside. We understand that and feel it is incredibly important to provide a way to make it easier for women to take care of themselves,” said Bailey. “We are constantly assessing, growing, looking at evolving needs, addressing them as they develop and as research warrants, all in order to continue to be the top choice in women’s health care in the region.” ●
