Sutter Auburn Faith Infusion Therapy Center adds Saturday hours

Auburn residents no longer need to travel to Roseville for cancer care on the weekends.Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital's UAIC Infusion Therapy Center has extended its hours and is now open on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The center, named in honor of the lead gift from the United Auburn Indian Community, is also open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.Our community's needs for infusion therapy continue to grow, said Michelle Day, charge nurse and infusion specialist at the center. We are happy to offer more flexibility to our patients for the care they need.The center recently added a new nurse, Sharda Moore, RN, to help with growing demand for services. Moore has previous experience launching and writing policies and procedures for infusion services with Chartwell and Desert Medical Group in Palm Springs. After nearly a year of working closely with its community neighbors and leaders, Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital held an open house for its new Infusion Therapy and Wound and Ostomy care centers in May 2007.The UAIC Infusion Therapy Center offers a unique approach that involves the community in the patient-care process. A hospital focuses on giving medication and the new therapy center will focus on treating the whole patient, not just the disease, Susan Brendan, nursing manager at Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, told the Journal when the center opened. We will treat the patient emotionally and spiritually as well as physically.To do that, the center provides a comfortable, casual and more personal environment for patients.Community volunteers offer interactive classes, provide televisions and offer classical music CDs, provided by the Auburn Symphony, to patients. The Wound and Ostomy Care Center provides physical therapists and a wound, ostomy continence registered nurse with advanced training in wound care to provide treatment for hard-to-heal wounds, often resulting from diabetes, pressure ulcers, ischemia and other circulatory problems.Nurses also provide patients with assistance in living with an ostomy, stoma and pouch. The Sutter Auburn Faith Foundation, the hospital's charitable arm, pledged to raise $400,000 to help complete the project. More than 400 donors also provided gifts to the foundation for the project. The Auburn Daybreak Rotary Club also offered its support by sponsoring a flamingo flocking fundraiser to earn money for six new infusion therapy pumps for the center earlier this year. Rotary officials estimate the flamingos brought in more than $16,000.We are definitely growing, said Virgie Galindo, Sutter's chief nurse, of the center. Monday through Friday just wasn't allowing us to schedule our patients on a timely basis. Our staff has been very accommodating and extending our hours will allow us to accommodate our patients' needs.Jenna Nielsen can be reached at jennan@goldcountrymedia.com or comment at auburnjournal.com.