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 72 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.