hello welcome to mosaic. for many of us who have suffered from cancer or had family with cancer over the last 30 or so years, the signs to the window of the treatment centers often said gone fishing. st. mary's is open for business they have a new cancer center bringing cancer into the now. we are very happy to talk about it today on mosaic and father ed murray a chaplain for many years in the navy. thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure to be here. >> sherry a patient navigator in the cancer center, a nurse and local girl you live in st. stevens your children went to school there. we are happy to have you with

us. >> thank you. >> we have talked about the cancer center before. it is somewhat difficult for us to look at cancer from a hopeful perspective the way things have been over the years my father suffered there cancer. back in those days, in the 70s. things were primitive. today things are up to age especially with a place like the cancer center. do you want to tell us about it father murray? >> well, it is a very wonderful place to visit, i go down there frequently to visit patients in the infusion center. what i have always been impressed by is the quality of care on the part to have staff. you know medicine is certainly a lot of high end technology and drugs and so forth, but it has to always have a human face and human hand. what i find in watching the staff dealing with the patients, you know who have come in for their treatment,

you know, it can be a very chaotic time to be ill and especially, with a diagnosis of cancer, and this new center is an inviting place, the people i've talked to there, they like coming, they feel safe, they feel they are well cared for, and it is a great addition to the bay area. it is -- st. mary's is on the cutting edge of many things, whether it is cardiac care, orthopaedics or this cancer center, which is very much needed. and -- because what i think what sherry said, the number of incidents of cancer grows each year in this city. >> and the spirit of sisters of mercy has always been a wonderful part. and there is no better time

than to bring you in. you are a patient navigator, you are -- you become friend and partner with patients and you are a nurse. >> i am a nurse. local girl like you said i went to mercy and usf. one of the beautiful things about nursing over the years i have never had a position i have been bored with and this is by far the best position i have ever had. sisters of mercy have given me the opportunity to develop the role. i am the first navigator st. mary's has had i do become a partner with the patients and physicians. i am a link between the physicians and patients. if they have problems or questions or concerns, often times are afraid of the doctor or don't want to feel they are bothering their doctor they will call me. >> march 26th you opened had a grand opening, the archbishop

was there to bless the facility now it is open for business ready to go. so how are people -- how are the patients? because it is a new thing. when all of us go to the doctor especially with something serious like cancer we go with family certainly but it is hard to let people into that experience. how have they been letting you be their partner in this? >> i have been very very lucky most patients come through the physician i get a referral then i meet with them and i always ask them to bring someone with them. patients are scared. >> everybody is afraid. >> everybody is scared when you hear the word cancer. that is natural and normal i tell them it is. you take away that anxiety of coming to this wonderful new place. it is warm, inviting, very family focused, all of our bays, are private bays there is a seat in the area for someone to sit with the patient while they are going through treatment. i do teaching with patients and families around.

what they are looking at for the next several months often times with treatment what it will look like for them. we have several areas where the family can wait. we have a nice waiting room now. we never had that before. >> what i like too, we will take a break-in a little bit what i like so much about it, this energy toward something that has been undefeatable not that it can only be fatal but it can be fatal long before a cancer patient dies. >> yes. a lot depends upon the person, what -- there is something that triggers inside the person that they can call upon i know i visit -- there is a particular patient coming in for chemo and i am very fascinated by her attitude. she has no defeatist understanding, she is going to lick this. she is very positive she keeps very active in her life,

watching out for her neighbors, and on the other hand you can meet some body sadly who has kind of given up and i think when that happens, they are on a road that they are not going to get better. >> but a place and a motivation that can come from the st. mary's cancer center can help people. >> absolutely because i think the attitude of the staff is we are here to help you. we will help you get better we are extending your life and that i think triggers in people the will to live. >> we will take a break. we will be back on mosaic. stay with us ,,

we are back on mosaic. today we are very happy to speak with you about the new chw cancer center at st. mary's medical center in san francisco. it bears the wonderful spirit of sisters of mercy but also bears the most contemporary technology vailable to treat the disease. father ed murray, chaplain at st. mary's you had a 25 year career in the navy as an on duty chaplain, aircraft carriers, big ships. >> hospitals. >> and now you are chaplaining perhaps even a bigger ship, in talking to people suffering from a disease that many of us call the end of the line which has been in years past i think but today, sherry, you are a patient navigator, there is great hope that we don't -- tell us, let's talk about it. you are trying to raise money too for the center we want to

let people know how they might help you do that. i want to know -- i want to know that when i go, to a place, to be treated even for a disease and i am afraid of, there can be -- there is hope for me in many quad rents. >> well, i always say to patients when there is life there is hope you are here with me, there is life there is hope you are not going to be alone. that is one thing about st. mary's we do very very well you are not just a cancer you are not just a number you are a person you have a number around you cancer effects everyone around you. it just doesn't effect the person with the disease. >> tell us about that outreach to the family. >> well, i always ask if there is someone that can come with the patient especially for the beginning meetings when you are afraid you can't hear everything being told to you. even though doctors can explain it to you and give you your prognosis how long they want you to be treated you don't

always hear that. some body with you might be able to hear that for you or write things down for you. when you have a cancer or chemo buddy i call them often time, they are the ones that take that information in for you and give it back to you in a different way maybe when you are better able to tolerate all the details. >> yeah. father tell us too, about your service to the people at the cancer center. how are people with the idea of this new place this new way and the chapel that is just steps from it. >> well, the chapel is 6 floors above it. >> oh, i thought it was just a few bits away. >> no, but just an elevator ride. >> well, you know, at st. mary's we have always had a history of chaplains as part of the medical team. i happen to be a catholic priest and there is another but we have other chaplains of different faith groups. >> brother george cherry.

>> he is one of our administrators. and i think the opening line for a chaplain to any patient in the hospital is we are here to support your faith, belief and values. so that kind of covers all the basis whether you are a catholic, or a protestant or whatever faith group or no faith group you know the role of the chaplain is we are here to listen to you, to be supportive of you and i think that is very important for a patient diagnosed with cancer. some times they will kind of with draw into themselves for a period of time as they are trying to make sense of all this and some times the god question comes up you know why is god doing this to me i have been a good person and the role of the chaplain is to be the listener not necessarily do wedgie answers, -- do we give answers. to those of the catholic tradition there is the

opportunity, offer this sacrament of the anointing of the sick. in many cases when that happens the person gets a sense of peace. so our role is to be there, not to be invasive, i think it is always to be we are on the sidelines and if needed we come in, it is always you know, and it is always the patient who is going to set the agenda for us. >> okay we are going to sneak away and take a break but here we are sitting the three of us healthy how important are advance directives. >> i think one of the best acts of love that some body can do for his or her family is an advanced directive for health care. i've seen it too often when there is no such document the struggle the family has to go through to get -- it divides them and is if there was such a document, you know, it is the patient saying this is what i

want this is what i don't want and the family doesn't have to struggle with that. it is hard enough dealing with the fact that my mom or dad is dying without adding the struggle of what way do we go when the patient says this is what i want this is what i don't want. >> is there advice vailable on advance directives? >> absolutely there is a program at the hospital, april 6th, on advance directives open to the public. i think people should attend something like that. it is a conversation every family should have with itself. >> okay sherry tell us we are going to sneak away what is the best thing that has happened at the center so far open for business a couple weeks. >> we have moved in we are loving our new space our patients are so happy we were in a very old part of the hospital prior to this, and everything is new and clean and the equipment is standard and it just -- we have a blanket warmer which is a big deal.

we are very happy about that. >> aren't people happy too with the practicalities. >> parking is on ground level they don't have to walk up any stair levels walk straight into the center if you are in the wheelchair or have a device it is very easy radiation oncology is now back at our center back at our hospital which is a huge kudos. a long time coming back. >> that helps too for different areas of feeling to come with illness like embarrassment you don't have to parade in front of a lot of people you just go to where you are going that must be wonderful for people. >> it is a wonderful offer for the hospital and great benefit for patients. we are very happy to have radiation back at st. mary's. >> we are talking here today about the new cancer center, at st. mary's in san francisco. father ed murray an old friend of this program and old friend of mine and sherry a new friend a nurse and patient navigator

you take people through all their steps. were people surprised to learn there is going to be some body with them at first? >> i think so. i have patients that come to us often timesly have to go to usf for a bone marrow and they will always come back to me and says the not st. mary's i don't have anybody with me. >> that is what we are talking about today on mow say sick. st. -- mosaic. st. mary's new cancer center. stay with us

welcome back to mosaic we are talking about the new ch w cancer center in san francisco we are very happy to bring it to you. we talk about all kinds of things here on mosaic this fills a big part of that puzzle we are here with father ed murray, chaplain at st. mary's and sherry a patient navigator. she accompanies patients at the cancer center through their patient to keep adviced what is coming up with them. do you call say downtimes your appointment? >> i do call them a lot. i try to check up with patients some times they are not feeling well they are afraid to call i will give them a buzz at home and see how they are following through remind them to come

back for more. >> the ground breaking was march 26th. big event. the archbishop was there from the archdiocese of san francisco right father? >> yes, he was. and mingled with the people and then we had the blessing ceremony, he read a very nice -- gave a short little reflection that was very pointed on the churches and the gospel message of healing, and the presence of christ in the healing act, which is part of the mission of st. mary's hospital continuing of that mission of christ in healing and then we went around from section to section blessing with holy water and one little humorous part was one of the nurses at the infusion center, peggy made it very clear to me to make sure we go into the infusion center i steered the archbishop into the infusion center. >> oh, that is great. when we talk about these things and then we talked earlier about it you promised there

would be chow. >> cookies and punch it was great. >> yeah, real nice ground breaking. >> it was a wonderful group of singers from usf they sang really great and after the archbishop's blessing or at the conclusion of the ceremony they sang somewhere over the rainbow and it was really right on. right on. >> that is a great number. pretty little blue birds fly. >> there is a lot of hope flying at the cancer center the hope too is that you will raise all the money needed to complete paying for it so st. mary's of course is a wonderful place nonprofit hospital, a lot of indigent care there at st. mary's what can people do to help with that should they want to do that. >> this has been phase one. of the cancer center. we are still looking towards more breast health care, we wanted to have digital mammography for patients we

want to pay our cancer center debt and also want to continue on we have phase two we are talking about cardiac issues in phase two, we do a lot of indigent care. we take care of patients no matter what their financial status and they are part of the center if they end up with a diagnosis of cancer as well. we don't delineate. >> so what can people do? go to the website? >> they can go to the website, call someone at the foundation office there is many ways to -- >> give you a hand. >> they can help us out. >> you can show them around. big donors. >> but here we are talking about a disease that in its time has claimed many lives. and -- but so much of cancer today is treatable, right? >> right. i have many patients that have survived i have been doing this

almost five years and there is one patient in particular, that has a big place in my heart who has done remarkably well had resistant disease ended up having to have a stem cell transplant but is doing great now and he comes back all the time, still gets his care at st. mary's doesn't want to get it any where else, young fella, in his 20s actually so it effects everyone like i said you don't have to be a certain age or socio-economic level it effects everyone and we are curing patients. >> the more you know about it the better there is much to know so stay with us here on mosaic

welcome back to mosaic we are talking about the chw cancer center in san francisco joining us father ed murray a chaplain and sherry a patient navigator. father you have been around a long long time, you have been chaplain to people in the service in the navy, hospitals for many many years and half of the call for a many facetted program, it has been out there for a long time. >> yes i think now days, in the world of medicine, it is a collaborative effort on the part of many disciplines. you know to help a patient, a

family, deal with in this particular case, cancer because you know, people live in a larger world than just coming in to get treatment and how do you help them you know, call upon their strength and resources that they have, that can be helpful to them during this very difficult time, this very chaotic time. so st. mary's has always had a tradition of chaplain is he on staff there is always a very fine rapport with people they will stop you and say go see patient x. sherry has done that to me a couple times. >> you do what they want you to do. >> that's right. you get your marching orders, yes, ma'am i am on my way. so it is you know, people have many aspects to their lives and particularly if i see a person

is ill, faith can become a very important aspect, because first of all, it brings home your mortality, you know, that suddenly i am facing the fact that i could not -- i could die. >> sherry we were off camera you mentioned something, i asked you to hold that thought. tell us. >> when i started nursing 30 years ago patients some times with cancer were treated as if it was a death sentence they were not taken care of i don't think as a whole like we are now. if you were sick you were kind of left down the end of the hallway s you got your medicine but people weren't as interactive as i feel we are now. we have to many new things at the center not only our chaplain ski and nursing but dietary will come and see a patient, physical therapist will come and say i know you can't participate in a lot of exercises these are the things you can do.

we have just an array of people, people that can come talk to you about pain, special pain medication we have a pal tiff care team that can tell you to come -- we are at the end of the journey for instance, that pal la tiff care team does a wonderful job helping family and patients become peaceful. >> today there is so much more to know about cancer and disease st. mary's makes every attempt to know it. >> we do we have a lot of clinical trials, a huge melanoma center. we have many many patients that come to us, when they have been through other treatments already and come to us and say what else can we do. our oncologists are superb they work really well to get the latest and greatest of information and treatment, in my day when i first started there was probably 10 kinds of chemo therapy there is over 100,000 we have immune know

therapies and anti bodies we use for treatment cancer care is just starting in my opinion. >> yeah. >> we at st. mary's are trying to include the whole patient the whole spirit of the disease. >> well, i will say at st. mary's it is starting on the right foot wouldn't you father murray? >> absolutely. >> we have just a little bit of time left. >> it is continuing tradition that goes back 154 years the sisters set a spirit, we are here to care for people in the course of their illness and even to thened of their lives and i think i have heard so many people say you know they have been so blessed by coming to st. mary's and because of the quality of care they experience. >> okay how do you still feel about being a chaplain? >> i look forward to going through every day while there is predictability to your day there is also the unexpected. >> sherry the best thing for you very quick.

what is the best thing about what you do. >> meeting new people every day helping patients making someone feel comfortable and a team. >> thank you ed murray, father ed morery and sherry thank you for joining us on mosaic, chw cancer center learn more about it (announcer) while there are some home disasters you can't avoid,

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