Our Patient Experience

Our Promise

Working closely with your primary care doctor, our world-class team of experts will be at your side every step of the way. As a Roswell Park patient, you and your family have our unconditional promise that you will:

• Have full access to information, services, resources, clinical research studies, and a multidisciplinary team of specialists and support staff.
• Be encouraged as an active, informed participant in all aspects of your cancer care.
• Receive appropriate care that addresses your individual physical, mental, spiritual, practical and other needs.
• Receive care that is respectful, safe and compassionate.

RPCI’s Multidisciplinary Approach

Our skin cancer experts practice an extraordinary kind of teamwork that we call our multidisciplinary approach. This approach, which combines and coordinates many specialized areas of medicine was pioneered by our founder Dr. Roswell Park in 1898. He placed the patient at the center of a diverse team of specialists, each with a deep understanding of an essential medical discipline and devoted to sharing their expertise in order to help people with cancer. The new approach got notable results: cancer patients began to live longer.

Since then, we’ve expanded our understanding of cancer beyond anything Dr. Park could have imagined. And we’ve kept pace by constantly refining our multidisciplinary care.

Our skin cancer team calls on the best combination of dermatologists, pathologists, surgeons and chemotherapy and radiotherapy specialists — as well as research scientists, nurses, rehabilitation therapists, psychologists, social workers, pain management and nutrition experts — that your unique case requires. In turn, they collaborate with your primary care physician to tailor your treatment plan and ensure continuity of care from diagnosis through recovery.

The treatment team meets weekly at a Multidisciplinary Conference where they discuss and evaluate each patient’s case and collaborate to determine the best plan for each patient. The skin cancer team diagnoses and treats patients with non-melanoma skin diseases.

Quality of Life

Quality healthcare is more than medical tests and successful treatments. Quality of life — in other words, your ability to enjoy normal life activities — is important to every member of the Roswell Park team. Recognizing this, we embrace a patient-centered model of care delivery that is respectful, safe and compassionate, and addresses your individual physical, spiritual, cognitive and practical needs.

Compassionate, Competent Caregiving

Roswell Park nurses are among the best in the nation, earning Magnet® Recognition for nursing excellence, a top national honor bestowed by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). This is a distinction held by just 6 percent of the hospitals in the United States, with Roswell Park being the only one in Western New York to earn Magnet status. In Magnet hospitals, patient outcomes are better and length of stay is shorter.

Living with Cancer

We believe survivorship begins at diagnosis and lasts a lifetime, with uninterrupted access to specialized cancer care and support. We want to ensure that all your present and long-term needs — physical, psychosocial, nutritional, spiritual, legal — related to cancer survivorship are met; that any early warning signs of recurrence are detected and treated immediately; and that routine preventive and follow-up care is always available to enhance your health, well-being and peace of mind.