CONTACT: Susan Hall
214.820.1817
susanh@baylorhealth.edu
Janeen Browning
469.814.2107
janeenbr@baylorhealth.edu
(PLANO, TEXAS – Dec. 29) Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano is now offering a free program provided by the American Cancer Society to support women with a personal concern about breast cancer. The American Cancer Society’s Reach to Recovery is a one-on-one visitation program designed to help women cope with their breast cancer experience. This experience begins at the moment someone is faced with the possibility of a breast cancer diagnosis, and continues throughout the entire period that breast cancer remains a personal concern.
Reach volunteers offer two important services to patients: 1) the understanding and emotional support of someone who’s been there, and 2) access to needed information. They serve as positive role models, demonstrating that breast cancer survivors lead active and productive lives.
Reach volunteers, who are also breast cancer survivors, are carefully selected and trained by American Cancer Society representatives. They are matched to patients by diagnosis and treatment, age, and other factors that might contribute to mutual understanding and ease of communication. While some matches may not be perfect, experience with cancer is the most important common bond. The volunteers conduct visits (via phone or in person) and distribute Reach to Recovery kits and materials to patients and survivors. They offer support at various points along this continuum: diagnosis; decision making about treatment; dealing with treatment and its side effects; returning to a full, active life, or confronting any long-term effects – including a possible recurrence of the disease.
Reach volunteers do not offer medical advice, endorse, or refer. They do offer informational materials developed by the Society, and the encouragement and support of someone who has successfully coped with breast cancer. Volunteers are available to speak with patients (in person or by phone) at any time before or after surgery. A physicians order is necessary to set up a visit. Orders can be written on the patients chart while hospitalized.
About the American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by saving lives, diminishing suffering and preventing cancer through research, education, advocacy and service. Founded in 1913 and with national headquarters in Atlanta, the Society has 13 regional Divisions and local offices in 3,400 communities, involving millions of volunteers across the United States. For more information anytime, call toll free 1-800-ACS-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.
About Baylor Plano
Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano is a 128-bed acute care hospital committed to serving North Texas residents with personalized care and advanced technology on a beautiful campus with hotel-like amenities and all private rooms. Services include treatment for advanced spine deformities at the Baylor Scoliosis Center, neurosciences, orthopaedics, medical and radiation oncology, surgical weight loss, women’s services, gynecology, urology, gastroenterology, pulmonary, sleep disorders, pain management, diabetes management and more. Baylor Plano offers patients access to digital imaging and is the first hospital in north Dallas and Collin County to offer minimally invasive robotic surgery for gynecology and prostate procedures through the FDA approved da Vinci® S Surgical System. The hospital has won several quality awards including the Texas Health Care Quality Improvement Award of Excellence and is designated a Pathway to Excellence™ healthcare organization by American Nurses Credentialing Center.
As part of Baylor Health Care System, Baylor Plano offers patients access to innovative treatments and clinical trials performed through Baylor Research Institute in such areas as oncology and cardiovascular services. The Baylor Plano campus is the home of THE HEART HOSPITAL Baylor Plano, the first dedicated heart hospital in Collin County. For fiscal year 2007, Baylor Health Care System will report $390 million* in community benefit, which includes providing care for charity patients and patients enrolled in government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the unreimbursed costs of medical education, research and community programs. For more information, visit www.baylorhealth.com.
For a physician referral, call toll free 1-800-4-BAYLOR or search here.
*Represents preliminary information that will be reported to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Physicians are members of the medical staff at one of Baylor Health Care System¹s subsidiary, community or affiliated medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano or Baylor Health Care System.