National Cancer Institute
National Cancer Institute U.S. National Institutes of Health www.cancer.gov

Pilot Site Profile

Good Samaritan Hospital, Kearney, Nebraska
Good Samaritan Cancer Center

John W. Allen, CEO, Good Samaritan Hospital
John Gebert, MD, Lead Physician
Connie Wittman, Administrative Director, Cancer Center

Background
Good Samaritan Hospital serves nearly 350,000 people in central Nebraska and northern Kansas. With 207 beds, the hospital is the largest regional referral center between Lincoln, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado. The hospital opened the Good Samaritan Cancer Center in 2004 as a detached outpatient facility on the hospital campus, with construction underway for a radiation therapy unit. The cancer program at Good Samaritan has three medical oncologists and one radiation oncologist who treated 578 new cancer patients in 2005.

Patient Service Area
Over half of Nebraska’s 93 counties are designated Health Professional Shortage Areas and 71 counties are designated medically underserved areas. With the major population residing in the Lincoln area, this physician shortage affects 20 percent of the state’s population. Patients in these areas need to travel two to three times farther to see medical and surgical specialists than those living in urban and suburban areas. The rural Nebraska communities of Kearney and Grand Island, in particular, have higher incidence of cancer than other parts of the state. The population in Kearney, home of Good Samaritan, is 94 percent White and 5 percent Hispanic.

Access and Outreach Initiatives
Good Samaritan has formal partnerships with several community health organizations to conduct cancer screenings at health fairs and conferences around the region. One of its long-standing programs is the annual Colorectal Screening Program in which Good Samaritan partners with 10 other hospitals to distribute screening kits at such venues as the minority health fair and the Cattleman’s Classic in Kearney.

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National Cancer Institute U.S. Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health USA.gov