Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 22 : Fall 2014 | Page 74
Upgrades Underway to improve
patient experience and Convenience
Major changes are underway at TAMC’s A.R.
Gould Memorial Hospital in Presque Isle. The ongoing
work, which has been underway for over a year now,
represents the most significant changes to the buildings that comprise the medical center’s Academy Street
campus in more than two decades. It is expected to be
ongoing into 2018.
“Our efforts are designed with patient experience
and convenience as top priority,” said TAMC President
and CEO Sylvia Getman. “We are working to group
similar practices and services together and, to every extent possible, locate patient care areas to the main level,
while moving non-patient care areas on the lower and
upper levels.”
Cancer Care Center
The space on the main floor of the East Wing
Annex Building located next to Aroostook Cancer Care
will be the new home of TAMC’s radiation therapy
service, the only of its kind for cancer patients in northern Maine. The bringing together of the oncology and
hematology services at Aroostook Cancer Care and the
radiation therapy services will further advance the region’s most comprehensive and technologically equipped
cancer care center.
TAMC will be installing a new, state-of-the-art
linear accelerator, which provides radiation therapy used
to shrink tumors for cancer patients throughout the
TAMC
More Than A Hospital
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FALL 2014
region. Dynamic dose
targeting and a multi-leaf
collimator to shape the
beam to treat even the
smallest tumors with the
new Varian linear accelerator will mean
improved care and
convenience for patients.
According to Dr.
John Mullen, TAMC
Above: TAMC’s linear accelerator is being replaced by a new state-of-the-art
radiation oncologist,
“Radiation Therapy is one one, located in Aroostook Cancer Care
for patient convenience.
of the most important
Below: Dr. John Mullen, TAMC radiamodalities used in the
tion oncologist, and his team provide
the only radiation oncology treatment
treatment of cancer
patients. It is estimated north of Bangor.
that radiation therapy
will be used in 60-70% of
cancer patients at some
time during the course
of their disease. The new
facility being constructed
will be an up-to-date
center where treatments
Dedicated specialists at Aroostook Cancer Care
provide comprehensive services for patients with cancer and
blood disorders: Vatsala Kirtani, MD: Gibson Crawford, PA-C;
Ronald Rohe, MD; and Arjun Sood, MD.