Portneuf Medical Center celebrates expansion of care through new affiliation with Huntsman Cancer Institute
Published at | Updated at
POCATELLO – Portneuf Medical Center has a new partner in the fight against cancer, and administrators say the health care alliance has been a long time coming.
PMC’s oncology clinic and the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City are partnering to expand Portneuf Valley residents’ access to cancer care.
To announce the partnership, representatives from both PMC and Huntsman held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday evening. Officials say the relationship will help to enhance the oncology services offered by the Portneuf Cancer Center.
“Today’s ribbon-cutting is not a finish line; it’s a beginning of a deeper collaboration, shared learning and a stronger cancer care network for this community. Together, we are raising the standard of care,” said Dr. Sachin Apte, chief clinical officer at Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Huntsman Cancer Institute is a highly prestigious research facility and hospital located on the University of Utah campus. Before Tuesday, it was affiliated with six different hospitals from five neighboring states, according to a Portneuf Health press release. Portneuf Medical Center is the seventh hospital to affiliate with the Utah hospital.
The way Dr. Michael Callaghan, radiation oncologist at PMC, explained it, this affiliation places Portneuf Cancer Center under Huntsman’s “umbrella” of care.
“When (we) call down and talk to one of the physicians down there, (we’re) part of the team, as opposed to the guys down the road,” Callaghan said. “And even though (we’re) friendly and everything else, (we’re) now part of that umbrella.”
The affiliation between PMC and Huntsman has been in the making for almost two decades.
“Nearly 20 years ago, the idea of an affiliation with the Huntsman Cancer Institute began with excitement, confidence and a clear vision of what success would look like,” Callaghan said in his remarks to the crowd Tuesday.
However, due to setbacks experienced over the years, he compared the journey to the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was condemned to push a boulder up a hill, only to have it fall back down again, for eternity.
“At first glance, that’s a story of futility, about endless work without reward,” Callaghan said. “But after 20 years on this journey, I see this story differently.”
He said there were times when establishing a formal affiliation seemed impossible, even though Portneuf and Huntsman had a good relationship, because of obstacles they didn’t foresee.
“The times we thought we had finally reached the top, only to watch the boulder roll back down again. But each time, we had a choice. … What kept this project alive for the 20 years was … persistence and the desire to improve the care of our patients,” Callaghan said.
In his remarks, Apte said that this affiliation does not mean that Portneuf patients will need to travel to Salt Lake City for treatment.
“In fact, our goal is the opposite: to support and strengthen local teams and minimize the need to travel whenever we can. And when travel is necessary for highly specialized care, our teams work closely together to ensure seamless coordination and continuity when patients return home,” Apte said.
Now that it’s official, Callaghan said the affiliation will enable greater knowledge sharing between the two organizations.
“There’s a lot of resources they have that they cannot share outside of that world of being (affiliated with) Huntsman. With training, procedures, those sorts of things are … going to really help us,” Callaghan said.