What's the scoop on Cancer Treatment Centers of America? What does being a radonc for them entail? Just curious.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America...radoncs?!
- Thread starter FreakFlag
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I've heard a similar rec, although I don't know specifics.
For what its worth, those sames jobs from CTCA keep getting posted every year on ASTRO. That's an ominous sign right there....
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A few bullet points about CTCA:
1. The typical community Rad Onc has the following patient mix: ~70% curative and ~30% palliative. At CTCA this tends to be reversed because you generally are seeing patients who have exhausted all first-line treatments.
2. CTCA does not take Medicare or Medicaid. You either have to have a good private insurance or pay cash.
3. CTCA is fully integrated in that they have Surg Onc, Med Onc, and Rad Onc. Further, they have many other members of an integrative oncology team including nutritionists, psychologists, etc.
4. Customer service is of PARAMOUNT importance. The patient can NOT be wrong (or at least they cannot think they are wrong).
5. Most of their business comes OUTSIDE of the state where the particular center is. Patients are generally flown in, transported to/from airport in stretch limos, and generally stay in a nearby hotel or in one of the fancier rooms in the center.
6. From a Rad Onc perspective, they have a lot of $$$ so your technology and support staff are generally quite good.
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Overall, it is probably not somewhere you want to start your career out of residency but may not be too bad if you are experienced.
1. The typical community Rad Onc has the following patient mix: ~70% curative and ~30% palliative. At CTCA this tends to be reversed because you generally are seeing patients who have exhausted all first-line treatments.
2. CTCA does not take Medicare or Medicaid. You either have to have a good private insurance or pay cash.
3. CTCA is fully integrated in that they have Surg Onc, Med Onc, and Rad Onc. Further, they have many other members of an integrative oncology team including nutritionists, psychologists, etc.
4. Customer service is of PARAMOUNT importance. The patient can NOT be wrong (or at least they cannot think they are wrong).
5. Most of their business comes OUTSIDE of the state where the particular center is. Patients are generally flown in, transported to/from airport in stretch limos, and generally stay in a nearby hotel or in one of the fancier rooms in the center.
6. From a Rad Onc perspective, they have a lot of $$$ so your technology and support staff are generally quite good.
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Overall, it is probably not somewhere you want to start your career out of residency but may not be too bad if you are experienced.
D
deleted4401
I don't understand why factual information would have to be distributed through private message. I have a lot to learn about why CTCA should not be somewhere one should work.
Please let us know!
Patients ask me if they should go there. I tell them I don't know. The one major problem that I know about is that are very difficult about sending their records over if I am seeing them afterwards or if I saw them before and want an update. I don't know anything about their methods or techniques or their promises. Give us some facts, Seper! Everyone I know doesn't know and whoever does is vague.
S
Please let us know!
Patients ask me if they should go there. I tell them I don't know. The one major problem that I know about is that are very difficult about sending their records over if I am seeing them afterwards or if I saw them before and want an update. I don't know anything about their methods or techniques or their promises. Give us some facts, Seper! Everyone I know doesn't know and whoever does is vague.
S
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I've heard they club baby seals
When my patients ask about them, I typically pull up NCCN and show them the authors for that particular disease site. Then I pull up US News Top Cancer Hospital rankings. Most of the patients asking about CTCA are surprised that CTCA is not on these lists. CTCA does such a good job with marketing that many patients think they are "the best" cancer hospital in the country. Once I show them these lists, I can typically divert them to MDACC, Mayo, etc for a real second opinion.
They are the best marketers of oncology services in the country, but personally I would avoid working for them at all costs. Why? They value the creation of money over the provision of excellent patient care, they provide no indigent care, refuse to participate in Medicare/Medicaid, and offer their docs no research opportunities whatsoever.
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Take it for what it's worth but wikipedia does have a "controversy" section on CTCA in their entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_Treatment_Centers_of_America#Controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancer_Treatment_Centers_of_America#Controversy
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It seems that they did at some point and incurred the wrath of the FDA when they enrolled ineligible subjects and failed to follow research protocols appropriately
http://www.casewatch.org/fdawarning/prod/2001/cancercenters.shtml
