Health Watch: New RRMC infusion center reduces wait times
RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) - A new infusion center at Rutland Regional Medical Center is reducing wait times and improving patient care.
Mary Haynes suffers from a blood disorder and has been getting infusions at Rutland Regional Medical Center for the last five years every couple of weeks, waiting sometimes for as two hours.
Haynes says her bone marrow doesn’t produce red and white blood cells, and platelets. She says without the infusions, it makes it difficult to even get out of bed. “I am very sluggish and tired. I can’t do much at all. Sometimes I can’t even walk,” she said.
Now that RRMC has created a new infusion center, she doesn’t have to wait. “The other area that we went, it was very nice but it was crowded there. Sometimes there weren’t chairs or I had to wait, or go to the emergency room to have the infusion -- wasn’t too crazy about that,” Haynes said.
According to hospital officials, the need for more infusions has continued to grow. In 2019, the hospital recorded 846 patient visits. By 2023 that number had grown to 3,562, a nearly 400 percent increase.
“What has happened with drug development is new drugs that are available, some are not available in pill form, they are only available in intravenous form. So, the growth in those therapies, which is what has driven the need for more and more time available for people to receive those,” said Allan Eisemann with RRMC’s Foley Cancer Center.
The new center serves over 25 patients a day. Instead of waiting for infusions in the cancer center, emergency room, or diagnostic imaging, patients are in one space receiving care.
“Diagnostic Imaging does a lot of different things, so to be able to move infusions over to its own space allows us to take more people in. It just lets people have a little more space around them. We don’t have to rush people through, we don’t have to keep them waiting,” said Barbara Ax, a nurse at the hospital.
RRMC officials say the community rallied to raise $340,000 for the new space. It’s an effort patients like Haynes say they are grateful for. “I can come in, they have something available for me to sit. It’s not like you have to wait for this one to finish their infusion,” she said.
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