Reopening the Cancer Center patient Resource Center
Contact: Sarah Bello
By Kara Dowaliby, Marketing & Communications Coordinator l
More than two years after being closed due to COVID, the patient Resource Center has reopened in the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative. Durinda Haukap, Cancer Center director, and a team of caregivers, including care concierges and radiation therapists, started the reopening process and wanted to change directions.
"When I started about a year and a half ago, this was closed, and it was more of a storage room,” Haukap says. "We had boxes everywhere and even a fully decorated Christmas tree. Merchandise was stacked on each other, and walking around was hard. We had to sort through, organize and clean on more than one occasion."
Before COVID closed, the Resource Center had a robust offering of gift shop items and sundries and sold food and beverages.
In the journey to reopen, the decision was made to change it into more of a comfortable reading room with ample educational resources, including a lending library.
"Our care concierge, Megan Kornder, has played a huge part in organizing all the front-facing educational materials, while nurse navigators, Susie Graham and Faedra Matthews, have looked at all the content to ensure it is current and up-to-date," Haukap says.
Isabel "Izzy" Portillo, the Resource Center coordinator, is a summer intern from Clatsop Works tasked with running the center.
Free printed materials cover vast information on cancer diagnoses, treatment, resources and support. Patients can also check out cancer educational or fictional reading books through the lending library.
"We also have activities — Sudoku, crossword puzzles, adult coloring books and games for people to occupy their time while they wait. Patients can check out iPads and watch shows while doing long infusion treatments. We have handmade and donated quilts, blankets and hats in the back that I'll put out sometimes, and I'll move things around," Portillo says. "Our wardrobe room has wigs, many scarves and breast prostheses; I can even cut and style the wigs."
Patients are welcome to take anything from the Resource Center. Everything is complimentary to them; the center is there to provide a wide range of support to patients receiving care at the Cancer Center.
The Resource Center has made many improvements since reopening, including drop-in spirituality and social worker services, but the team still has work ahead. When COVID hit, the Cancer Center discontinued all integrative therapies besides acupuncture.
Portillo has been tasked with finding new integrative therapists, including those who do massage therapy, yoga and Reiki, in hopes of returning a full range of integrative therapies and classes soon.
"We're considering this more of a soft opening, because we are trying to solicit the patient population and see what will benefit them throughout their journey with us," Haukap says. "We want to know what types of resources, activities and integrative therapies patients want us to offer. The primary goal is to support the patient's needs."