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Patricia Saylor
Produced in conjunction with COLA
Posted on:
August 3, 2010
 Patricia Saylor
Cancer Centers of Southwest Oklahoma
Lawton, Oklahoma
When three Southwest Oklahoma hospitals--Comanche County Memorial, Duncan Regional and Jackson County Memorial--joined forces several years ago to create expanded cancer treatment centers in the communities of Lawton, Duncan and Altus, area patients for the first time were able to receive the cancer care they require close to home. Each of the centers, which are collectively known as Cancer Centers of Southwest Oklahoma (CCSWOK), features experienced staffs who are experts in adult cancers and blood disorders--including Medical Technologist Patricia Saylor, who runs the all three facilities' medical laboratories.
Assisted by a phlebotomist and a fellow laboratory assistant, Saylor's goal is to ensure that every one of the 50-100 patients they see each day receives their lab results within 10 minutes of being tested to determine if their blood counts are within the range required to receive chemotherapy and other treatments. "Typically, two of us are drawing blood, one of us full time and the other part-time, so she can also run the samples to the lab. Meanwhile, the third person is running the CBC (complete blood count) and blood chemistry tests," says Saylor. "We do a lot of work, and we do it very quickly, because we but don't want patients to have to wait for their results."
Blood work and analysis are critical to the center's chemotherapy treatments, Saylor explains, because patients can't receive the drugs unless their blood counts are within a certain range. The volume of chemotherapy patients fluctuates from week to week, depending on where each patient is in their chemotherapy regimen, but because patients also often return to the center in between treatments to have their white blood cells monitored, Saylor and her team have even more patient contact than do the center's 10 nurses and three physicians.
A long-time interest in science originally led to her decision to pursue laboratory work. The child of an Army soldier, Saylor grew up in Nuremberg, Germany but later moved with her family to Lawton, OK, where her father was posted at Fort Sill. When it was time to go to college, Saylor enrolled in nearby Cameron University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology in 1991. She then worked for eight years in the laboratory at Comanche County Hospital, and in 2001 joined Cancer Centers of Southwest Oklahoma. "I liked hospital work, but the hours are much better in a physician office laboratory," says Saylor. "And there are no 'call backs' or weekend and holiday shifts."
Which isn't to say that her schedule at the physician office laboratories isn't a daunting one. The high complexity laboratories conduct more than 250,000 tests annually, including more than 100,000 blood chemistry analyses. The laboratories also participate in nationwide research projects, and serve as a genetic testing site. But, she said, she enjoys the work because "I feel like I am a 'specialist,' and I am treated as a professional, part of the team participating in our patients' care, along with the physicians, nurses and other staff."
One tool that has made Saylor's job easier of late is a new web portal from COLA called "COLAcentral." The new tool gives laboratory personnel the ability to update their laboratory profile, view news alerts and survey results, and inform COLA of information updates, eliminating the need to fax this information. The portal even can store information such as laboratory director forms and proficiency testing results in an electronic filing cabinet.
Now Saylor can simply log into the COLAcentral system and provide updates on personnel and testing electronically which "saves time, and assures me that COLA has the information," she says. "Before, faxes would get lost, so even though I thought COLA had the information, sometimes it wasn't there." When a new co-director was appointed for the laboratories recently, Saylor was able to quickly determine certification requirements using the COLAcentral site. Now, she can log on results every time the director completes a required course.
During a recent survey by COLA, the labs earned a perfect score.
While Saylor is well satisfied with her career choice, she added that physician office laboratories aren't for everyone. "This setting wouldn't work for someone who is the introverted type, because of the patient contact involved. They would probably be happier in a hospital laboratory." The satisfaction she gets from her job is tremendous, she adds. "While it's hard to lose a patient, it is very rewarding to see those that get well," Saylor said. "It is a privilege to treat and help this patient population."
Cancer Centers of Southwest Oklahoma has been a COLA client since 1993.
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