The Community Oncology program in Moosomin currently serves about 70 chemotherapy patients in southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba, but now is able to accommodate a wider range of chemotherapy options and serve a wider range of patients..
Thanks to donations made to the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation, the Community Oncology Program of Saskatchewan (COPS) in Moosomin now has the equipment to to expand its services.
The COPS program was designed to help patients who need chemotherapy get it closer to home by providing it in smaller communities.
Moosomin is the smallest community in Saskatchewan be part of the Community Oncology Program, originally conceived to expand chemotherapy from the main centres into rural Saskatchewan to bring the treatment closer to the patients.
Manager of Pharmacy Services at the 麻豆传媒AVeast Integrated Care Centre in Moosomin, Karen McDermaid, says the Foundation purchased the fridge and freezer because the COPS program needed additional space to store chemotherapy treatments.
The fridge was purchased to meet storage standards as other drugs cannot be stored alongside chemotherapy agents.
The freezer was purchased as well to help provide a specific treatment that requires medication to be frozen once mixed.
The fridge and freezer were purchased at a cost of $7,500.
鈥淭hey purchased a fridge about a year ago and then purchased the freezer. Ultimately that was in association with the Chemotherapy Outreach Program because we can鈥檛 store things like insulin and other injectable fridge drugs with chemotherapy. And we were getting to the point where we didn鈥檛 have space because of the number of chemotherapy patients we have. As well, one of the medications we have needs to be in a freezer that is purposed as a hospital freezer. We initially had a household freezer, but we were told we couldn鈥檛 use that anymore,鈥� McDermaid said.
Because pharmacy standards do not permit the use of household freezers or fridges, they had to purchase a new one that has its temperature monitored 24 hours a day with an alarm to alert staff in the event the freezers temperature goes outside its required range.
She says that the new freezer has allowed them to provide a new type of treatment that could only be administered in Regina before the purchase.
鈥淭he treatment that is tied with this one is a seven-day a week, every day treatment and the injection takes about ten minutes. We had patients who were driving to Regina every day for seven days just because we didn鈥檛 have the freezer. So it鈥檚 an addition to our little space.鈥�
She explains that one thing the COPS program does is helps minimize the amount of driving patients need to do to receive treatment.
鈥淲hat the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency looks at is the number of kilometers you save if you had to drive to Regina and back. Even if you鈥檙e driving from Redvers to Moosomin, it鈥檚 a huge difference. Even for the patients as well, depending on the chemotherapy you鈥檙e getting you may not feel that great after, and knowing you have a two-hour drive ahead of you to get home as opposed to ten minutes.
鈥淭here are also better support systems here as well with family and friends. So it鈥檚 just more manageable.鈥�
From April to December 2020 alone, patients were saved 84,490 km of driving. To put that into perspective, that would be like driving the full length of the Trans Canada Highway 11 times.
Thanks to the purchase of the freezer, they are now able to carry one more drug that saves local patients trips to Regina.
鈥淭he Outreach program is set up so that certain medications that outreach centers can offer and there are different criteria that go into that decision but the one drug that needed the freezer was an approved drug and we could now add that offer it to patients locally.鈥�
McDermaid says that it鈥檚 not just Moosomin residents who utilize the program, but also individuals from nearby communities.
鈥淲e have people from Broadview, Redvers, Kipling, Moosomin, Esterhazy, and Rocanville. And we even have people from Manitoba because they see physitians in Moosomin. The next closest centre that does the COPS program is Melville and Estevan and Weyburn.鈥�
She says that since the program began in June of 1999 they have been able to provide full services to patients in the area.
鈥淥ur involvement is having the pharmacists review the orders when they come in from the cancer clinic and our technicians do the chemotherapy preparations and then we have nurses that are trained for the administration and documentation involved.鈥�
She says that the program has around 70 patients from southeast Saskatchewan and southwest Manitoba, but the number fluctuates.
鈥淭he numbers go up and down. We are one of the quieter programs in the province, busier than some but when compared to places like Yorkton we鈥檙e pretty quiet. Our volume fluctuates based on the need within the area. There are times where we could do more, there are times when we do less. We could always expand and do more but it鈥檚 based on what the need is in the local area.鈥�
The COPS program in Moosomin has a team of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians with a consultation to social workers, dietitians, home care, and additional supports where needed as well as a treatment room with two chairs and a room with a stretcher.
The COPS program is available in Estevan, Humbolt, Kindersley, Lloydminster, Meadow Lake, Melfort, Melville, Moose Jaw, Moosomin, Nipawin, North Battleford, Prince Albert, Swift Current, Tisdale, Weyburn, and Yorkton.
