Image courtesy of Fox Architects
Today marks a milestone for cancer treatment in the St. Louis area. Earlier, representatives from Saint Louis University Hospital formally opened the region's first comprehensive outpatient bone marrow transplant center, which allows cancer patients to return home during treatment instead of enduring a lengthy and expensive hosptial stay.
The Center for Blood and Marrow Transplantation within the SLU Cancer Center on the hospital's main campus will be led by Friedrich Schuening, the director of the division of hematology and oncology at the Saint Louis University Cancer Center who is currently battling leukemia himself and may be one of the center's first patients.
At the center, patients will be treated during the day at the new 16-room outpatient center and will be allowed to go home in the evening. Patients who live outside a 30-minute driving distance from the hospital will be allowed to stay at Saint Louis University Hospital’s Auxiliary House.
“The main advantage is patient satisfaction—I have yet to find a patient who prefers a hospital bed over being at home,” said Schuening of the center, which was featured in the August 2012 issue of St. Louis Magazine. “It also frees up inpatient bed capacity, which is always at a premium, and it reduces the cost of the procedure and treatment.”
Schuening also added that a main goal of the new center will be to increase the number of transplants per year.
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