Cancer care includes pet visits, massage and other therapies
Padding down the hallway, head up, mouth open and tail wagging, Maddie tramps into the small bright room where Becky is receiving an intravenous dose of the anti-cancer drug TAXOL. The two met nearly three years ago when Maddie first visited the chemotherapy unit at Women & Infants Hospital. Becky, in the sixth year of treatments, said that Maddie brings her a weekly bit of happiness during a tiring regimen.
Maddie "is very friendly, and visits everybody," Becky said. "It's her way of saying 'hi.' We pet her and give her some love. It brings you joy when you have the dog here."
Maddie's visits are one of the complementary care services offered to women treated in the hospital's gynecological oncology chemotherapy unit. The services are not billed as alternative medicine designed to improve patient outcomes but considered therapies to enrich the quality of life for those undergoing treatment.
"Society comes to us looking for what medical treatments are helpful, wanting evidence-based medicine," said Skip Granai, M.D., director of women's oncology and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology. "We asked ourselves if we could do more to affect the quality of the moment in a relative sense without breaching the patient's trust or breaching medical ethics."
With the assistance of Dawn Buchanan, owner of La Chimére spa in Swansea, Mass., and a former cancer patient, Granai and colleagues initiated complementary care in 1994 by offering foot massages before treatments. Under an animal companionship effort, patients could bring their own pets to chemotherapy or be visited by a dog - at the time a Shih Tzu named Patrick.
A year later, 125 patients were surveyed. Ninety-four percent expressed great enthusiasm for the services. All 63 patients who received massage during chemotherapy found it beneficial, and 93 percent said they felt better and that massage reduced their stress during treatment compared to previous chemotherapy. Eighty-four percent of patients who took part in the pet companionship program found that the interaction made their treatment experience more positive.
Granai said the pilot program changed the minds of fellow physicians, who were more skeptical than other staff. Surveyed before the program began, just 55 percent thought that complementary care would help patients. Moreover, less than 50 percent thought the program would benefit the medical staff. Some of his peers called the effort "gimmicky and market oriented."
"After the pilot program, we resurveyed the staff," Granai said. "One-hundred percent called the program 'excellent.' Almost all said the program had affected their own lives personally. I think complementary care brings back a sense of energy into the system."
Last year, Granai described the complementary care program to colleagues at the annual meeting of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists. Afterward, Granai was visited by several of the society's leaders, who wanted to share their experiences.
Today, the complementary care program includes a range of therapeutic massages as well as pet companionship, acupuncture, nutrition guidance, meditation, art, poetry and other offerings. The care is available to patients undergoing chemotherapy and to those receiving follow-up treatment. Women & Infants helps fund the effort.
Ideas for additional complimentary care services flow into the unit from patients, families, physicians and other medical staff. Granai has even heard from students at Brown and at RISD. The suggestions have ranged from guided imagery to aromatherapy.
"The level of complementary care being done here is a positive experience for all concerned," he said. "In particular, Brown medical students have a great affinity for asking questions such as 'Can we do more for patients?'"
In the unit, Maddie is called the dog-on-staff. She "works" at least two hours each week. During those visits, owner Dan Horne grades papers or catches up on readings. An assistant professor of marketing at Providence College, Horne said he once was "scared to death of hospitals, and didn't like the idea of dying." That has changed.
"I've had the chance to talk with patients," Horne said. "Maddie is a great common denominator. I've learned about life, death and hope."