Oncology Rehabilitation Backgrounder
St. John's Rehab's Oncology Rehabilitation Program was developed to meet the recovery needs of patients who have undergone major surgeries that require a long post-operative recovery period as a result of abdomen, gastrointestinal and other cancers.
The short-stay, intensive program was officially launched in April 2006, with the first patients admitted during its pilot phase in November 2005. Referrals to the program are accepted from hospitals and physicians throughout Ontario.
The oncology program's major acute care referring partner is Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. St. John's Rehab has formed an alliance with Sunnybrook to ensure a smooth transition from acute care to rehabilitation. The alliance will expedite the referral process to give patients the care they need sooner and in the right place, while ultimately reducing wait times for cancer care in Ontario's health system.
As part of the Complex Care Rehabilitation Program, we also provide rehabilitation for surgeries where cancer is a secondary diagnosis, such as major orthopaedic reconstruction and neuro-oncology.
Oncology rehabilitation follows St. John's Rehab's expanding focus towards niche rehabilitation programs for the most complex needs. A leader in specialized rehabilitation, we provide specialized treatment, education and outreach support for people recovering from amputations, traumatic injuries, burns, cardiovascular surgery, organ transplants, strokes and neurological conditions, joint replacement surgery and complex orthopaedic conditions.
Benefits of rehabilitation
Patients discharged directly home from acute care often experience challenges regaining independence. Having received life-saving treatment or surgery in acute care hospitals, they still have debilitating physical, emotional and psychological issues to overcome. Cancer survivors often heavily depend on family, friends and other caregivers for assistance with basic activities of daily life.
Rehabilitation treatment is designed to help patients regain physical strength and mobility. Individualized, customized rehabilitation care rebuilds lives by ensuring maximum recovery, improved quality of life and a smooth transition into the community.
The St. John's Rehab program involves multidisciplinary assessment, treatment and support focused on the whole person – body, mind and spirit. Emotional support is an important need for cancer survivors, who have often been in a hospital environment for extended periods and need assistance to build motivation and hope to live their lives to the fullest.
The health care system also reaps the benefits of rehab. Moving appropriate patients to a specialized rehab facility frees up urgently needed acute care beds at our partner facilities. Rehabilitation care is less expensive than acute care and a cost-effective solution to sustaining healthier communities in Ontario.
The rehab team
St. John's Rehab's highly skilled and committed multidisciplinary clinical team includes physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, nurses, speech-language pathologists, physicians, dietitians, psychologists, pharmacists, physiatrists and pastoral care.
Inpatient and outpatient teams each work collaboratively with patients and their families to design individually customized rehabilitation programs and to monitor progress towards each patient's specific goals.
The St. John's Rehab clinical team is specially trained to care for the unique physical and psychosocial needs of cancer survivors through a joint learning program with Sunnybrook.
Ontario cancer statistics
(Sources: Canadian Cancer Society and Cancer Care Ontario)
- Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Ontario .
- Lung cancer is the overall leading cause of cancer death in Ontario with an estimated 6,800 deaths in 2007.
- It is estimated 26,900 Ontarians will die of cancer in 2007.
- 59,500 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in 2007.
- Two out of every three households in Ontario have been affected by cancer.
- Survival for Ontario 's common cancers has improved over the last two decades.
- Improvements in treatment, better surgical techniques, the discovery of new drugs and cancer screenings have contributed to this improvement.
- An estimated 246,000 Ontarians (2 per cent of the population) were diagnosed with cancer sometime from 1994 – 2004 and are still alive.
St. John 's Rehab oncology patients (April 2006 – March 2007)
- Total inpatient beds: 6
- Patients admitted: 57
- Typical length of stay: 3 – 4 weeks
- Average age of patients: 75 years
- Patients aged 55 or older: 93 per cent
- Gender of patients: 48.3 per cent female, 51.7 per cent male