Citizens Health, KU Cancer Center launch groundbreaking rural oncology partnership

Cancer patients across Northwest Kansas will soon have access to specialists from The University of Kansas Cancer Center without routinely making the long trip to the other side of the state.

Citizens Health announced a new collaboration with the KU Cancer Center on Wednesday, Aug. 12, during a press conference at Citizens Medical Center’s new South Campus. Hospital employees, community leaders and medical professionals from neighboring communities filled the main lobby for what organizers called a transformational moment for rural health care.

The partnership will pair KU’s highly specialized oncologists with the care team at Citizens Medical Center. Patients will meet with their assigned KU physician through telehealth, while examinations, treatments and other hands-on care will be provided locally in Colby.

“This is the first time The University of Kansas Cancer Center has undertaken a collaboration such as this,” said Jack Beal, senior vice president of cancer services for The University of Kansas Health System.

Beal said oncologists, oncology nurses, pharmacists and other clinicians from KU will co-manage patients’ care in close coordination with Citizens Health. The approach combines the expertise of the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center with the local knowledge and personal support of medical professionals in Colby.

“We believe Citizens Health was the perfect partner for this,” Beal said. “Our teams are aligned and passionate about offering specialized cancer care close to home.”

Citizens Health CEO David McCorkle said the collaboration grew from conversations he had several years ago with Dr. Gary Doolittle, a KU medical oncologist and longtime telemedicine pioneer.

For McCorkle, improving access to cancer care is personal. His son was diagnosed with cancer, forcing the family to travel significant distances for treatment.

McCorkle said his family was blessed by the support it received from the Colby community during that experience, but the travel illustrated one of the most difficult realities facing rural cancer patients.

“We were describing the challenges that we face in rural health care in rural Kansas, about having to travel hundreds of miles to receive things like that,” McCorkle said. “How can we blend that academic excellence into our organization and care for people in this region in a way that’s transforming the lives of those people?”

Under the new program, patients will begin by contacting Citizens Health’s local oncology team. A patient navigator will help determine the specialty the patient needs and connect that individual with the appropriate KU oncologist.

A person with breast cancer, for example, can be connected with a physician who specializes in breast cancer, while someone with lung cancer or melanoma can be assigned to an expert in that particular field. That physician will remain part of the patient’s care team throughout treatment, providing continuity rather than a series of one-time consultations.

Doolittle said that connection can be especially important immediately after a diagnosis.

“I think the first two days, the first 48 hours, are the worst because you don’t know where to turn,” said Doolittle, who is also a cancer survivor. “You don’t know whether you’re going to get good care.”

Once a treatment plan is developed, local nurses and advanced-practice professionals will provide care at Citizens Medical Center. A local practitioner Amber Withington will participate in virtual visits and serve as an on-site anchor for patients.

Doolittle said that local presence preserves the personal relationship that can sometimes be lost when technology is involved. If a physician must deliver difficult news through telehealth, a trusted medical professional will be seated beside the patient to answer questions and provide support.

“The only difference is the physician is at a distance,” Doolittle said. “The rest, we want to work just like we do in clinic every day.”

The collaboration will also connect Citizens Health employees and patients with KU resources in clinical research, education, training and supportive care. Through the Masonic Cancer Alliance, KU Cancer Center’s outreach network, patients may have access to services including cancer screenings, tobacco-cessation programs, social workers, psychological support and, potentially, clinical trials.

Doolittle said cancer treatment has grown dramatically more complex since he began helping pioneer telemedicine in Kansas during the 1990s. Where physicians once needed to master a few dozen primary cancer drugs, new therapies, immunotherapies and targeted treatments now emerge at a rapid pace.

Technology and electronic medical records have made it possible to bring that increasingly specialized expertise to patients at a distance, he said. But technology remains a tool; the heart of the program is bringing people together.

“This is really more than a new clinic,” Doolittle said. “I think this is a new model to deliver cancer care.”

U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, who has supported telehealth programs and helped secure federal funding for rural health initiatives in Northwest Kansas, attended Wednesday’s announcement.

Moran said the partnership represents the kind of opportunity rural communities have long sought: making the latest advances in medicine available to Kansans regardless of where they live.

He also emphasized that rural hospitals and communities must work together rather than compete if they hope to sustain specialized services. Medical professionals from other regional hospitals attended the announcement, reflecting the broad area Citizens Health serves.

“This investment this community made in this hospital — and its medical community and the capabilities of cancer diagnosis and treatment that occur here — it’s for something more than just ourselves,” Moran said. “It means that our communities have a future.”

Citizens Health is a private, not-for-profit system serving nearly a dozen counties in Northwest Kansas. It employs close to 500 people and includes Citizens Medical Center, the Family Center for Health Care and Prairie Senior.

The system already offers dozens of specialty services, helping rural residents avoid trips to Denver, Wichita and other distant medical centers. The American Hospital Association reported that Citizens Health uses savings from the federal 340B drug-pricing program to support specialty-care partnerships, labor and delivery services, its local workforce and other programs.

Wednesday’s announcement comes only months after Citizens Health opened its 171,000-square-foot replacement hospital. The facility was developed following eight years of planning and was designed around changing rural health needs, increased outpatient demand and room for future growth.

The new hospital includes 25 private inpatient rooms, an emergency department, surgical and imaging departments, a larger labor and delivery unit and a two-story outpatient wing. Oncology and infusion services are located together on the second floor.

Staff members helped shape the building through full-size room mock-ups and simulated patient visits before construction began. More about the planning, financing and patient-centered design of the new facility is available in Healthcare Design’s detailed project report.

Following Wednesday’s presentation, McCorkle led KU representatives and community members through the hospital’s oncology and infusion center. The space was designed to feel comfortable and welcoming for patients who may spend much of the day receiving treatment.

Visitors were also invited to tour the Hope on Wheels mobile oncology unit, a technology-equipped vehicle that will periodically bring additional cancer services to Colby.

Beal said the organizations hope lessons from the Citizens Health collaboration can eventually be used to expand similar models into other rural areas of Kansas.

For Northwest Kansas patients and their families, however, the immediate benefit is measured more simply: fewer hours on the highway and more time receiving care near their homes and support systems.

“We want to reduce the burden of travel,” Doolittle said. “It makes life easier for family and caregivers as well.”