Losing our family

Cancer is not easy to overcome without the consistent and continued support of doctors, nurses and other staff members. It is  distressing to read about Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center canceling the New Mexico Cancer Care Associate's contract. This is so unfair to the patients and staff. The doctor/patient relationship is so critical and I have been blessed being a patient of Dr. Karen LoRusso and her team for almost seven years. Please, please reconsider. Let patients stay with care they are happy with — it's not to say the hospital will not provide care, but this would not be the 'family' that is helping us survive.

Shelly Brock

Santa Fe

Inhumane separation

Some 4,000 patients severed from their cancer doctors? Is this humane? As patients, we hope the current rift is not a corporate business action from Christus Healthcare, headquartered in Irving, Texas — which operates 600 other medical centers and 15,000 physicians in the United States, Chile, Mexico, and Columbia. How does this Texas-based system impact the financing the proposed $80 million Christus Cancer Center, and the decision to take control of the revenues from New Mexico Cancer Care Associates?

Christus St. Vincent contracts with several independent specialty groups. Why not continue with the cancer care associates, a practice of only six cancer specialists and two nurse practitioners who have provided quality care to grateful New Mexicans since 1992? In this David and Goliath divide, hopefully Christus St. Vincent, for the sake of the thousands affected by devastating cancers, will allow New Mexico Cancer Care Associates, a small and dedicated group of providers, to continue their vital work.

Dr. Lynn Bickley

Santa Fe

Work it out

I have followed the news about New Mexico Cancer Care Associates and Christus St. Vincent with considerable personal interest. Dr. Kathryn Chan has been my oncologist for over five years, and I have benefited greatly from her experience, expertise and care. To read this morning that the termination date has been extended to July 15, 2022, does not give me much comfort. My family and I have also received good care from Christus St. Vincent in the past. I strongly encourage the parties to work something out to where I can continue seeing Dr. Chan.

Jim Hays

Santa Fe

Show compassion

I wonder if anyone on the board of Christus St. Vincent has ever experienced long term cancer care? If they have, they’ll know that cancer treatment is a long, complicated, slow process. It can involve surgery, chemotherapy, myriad prescriptions, even more blood draws, infusions, and radiation over a period of years. The New Mexico Cancer Care Associates is full of folks who need assistance even to manage the elevator, the automatic doors, let alone the parking lot.

We cancer patients got a letter from the hospital stating the issue between the hospital and our current cancer care is one of “staffing.” What does that mean? “Staffing” is the whole ball game when it comes to care. Sure, everyone wants a lovely, brand-new building, but for patients staff is all important. Disruptions are serious threats to our health.

The hospital’s actions are seriously damaging. Please, hospital board and administration, show some compassion.

Margaret Alexander

Santa Fe

Let us keep our doctors

I would like to submit this letter in regards to the New Mexico Cancer Care Associates. I have had my oncologist since 2013, along with my father and my mother. I don't think it is in the best interest of patients who have already established a patient/doctor relationship with each other. They have access to our records and they are familiar with our medical conditions. I don't believe that we should have to sign forms to have our records released so others can have access to our records. This is not necessary especially to my parents who are elderly and don't have access to a computer. I am asking to please allow us to keep our doctors and continue with our treatment plans.

Debra Ortiz

Santa Rosa

Consider outcomes

I am a physician who also happens to be a cancer patient of New Mexico Cancer Care Associates. Practitioners there have worked effectively with Christus St. Vincent in providing exceptional oncology services to the hundreds of patients in Northern New Mexico for years. I wish to make the case that a significant aspect of that result is the relationships that have been forged between each patient and their physician.

In a 2015 paper published in the “Primary Care Companion for CMS Disorders”, a peer-reviewed journal, it is stated that "trust, knowledge, regard, and loyalty are the four elements that form the doctor-patient relationship, and the nature of this relationship has an impact on patient outcomes.” Christus St. Vincent’s desire to have the oncologists from New Mexico Cancer Care Associates be their employees when they do not want to is disruptive not only to care continuity, but to outcomes. As evidenced by previously published patient letters in this forum, patients are quite dismayed at the lack of regard for this vitally important aspect of the healing process. To disrupt that doctor-patient relationship is to negatively affect patient outcomes and must be reconsidered on the part of Christus as an undesirable element of this situation.

To place a new business model ahead of the health and well-being of both the doctor and patient is negligent professional activity. Christus, do consider the harm caused by your actions. The oncologists who wish to be independent of you are more fulfilled that way and desire that consideration, as do the patients. Help us all by honoring that relationship. Please find a way to make it work. It is crucial.

Dr. Stephen Perlstein

Santa Fe