Cancer Care Coming to Patient Homes in Rural Utah

A $4.5 million gift from the Huntsman family will fund an expansion of a unique program at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah (U of U) that brings specialty cancer care directly to patients in their homes. With this major gift, HCI’s Huntsman at Home^TM will expand to rural Utah, including Carbon, Emery, and Grand Counties. The goal is to provide cancer care for patients who live far from HCI in Salt Lake City by partnering with patients and their caregivers, communities, and medical teams to deliver many aspects of cancer care in a patient’s own home as an alternative to hospital visits at a medical center or emergency department.

The rural expansion announcement follows the first evaluation of Huntsman at Home, reported last month at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. Selected as a major presentation at the international meeting where the latest findings in cancer care are shared, HCI scientists detailed an analysis that showed Huntsman at Home patients had improved outcomes and reduced medical costs compared to a control group of cancer patients who did not participate in Huntsman at Home.

Huntsman at Home launched in 2018 and is currently exclusive to patients living within a 20-mile radius of HCI’s flagship hospital on the campus of the U of U. Today’s gift announcement allows Huntsman at Home to dramatically expand its reach. Huntsman at Home services range from symptom management to acute medical, post-surgical, and end-of-life care. The Huntsman at Home team includes HCI nurse practitioners and oncologists. It is operated in partnership with Community Nursing Services (CNS), a home health and hospice agency. Working with CNS staff, the team provides registered nurses, nursing aids, social workers, and physical therapist. All aspects of care are done in consultation with the patient’s medical oncologist at HCI.

“Cancer patients and their family caregivers are often thrust into a challenging environment of managing complicated treatments, symptoms, and more,” said John Ward, MD, HCI physician-in-chief and professor of internal medicine at the U of U. “We are grateful for the opportunity to determine how we can better serve our rural communities by bringing the Huntsman touch to patients in their own homes.”