A Top Nurse Takes Charge

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by Michelle Turner | Mar 29, 2010 10:45 am

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Posted to: Health Care, Science/ Medical

Michelle Turner Photo Catherine Lyons drove to New Haven in one of the season’s worst snow storms for a planning meeting. It didn’t faze her. She came here from Rochester, after all.

Catherine Lyons says the weather is better in New Haven than in Rochester, NY. “Drove here during one of your worst weather weekends. [The snow storm] never happened! We had a snow emergency meeting, did a lot of planning. The weather is better. And I like the city—I just haven’t had the chance to really see it yet, I’ve been so busy here.”

“Here” is the new Smilow Cancer Center at Yale-New Haven Hospital, where Ms. Lyons is the newly appointed clinical program director.

Assuming a top position at New Haven’s new 14-story, $467 million Smilow Cancer Hospital doesn’t faze her, either. She’s had a lot of relevant experience—much of it, again, in Rochester.

Lyons (pictured), a native of western New York, started this month as the hospital’s clinical program director and director of oncology nursing.

“I’m the chief nurse,” Lyons said in an interview, “but I oversee other clinical services, and all clinical care services. I work with physicians and nurses, social services and also sit with patient care services. The team can consist of physicians from all disciplines, radiation and chemotherapy oncologist, therapist, and nursing staff.

“We have to talk to one other before information is handed off to create that patients treatment. It’s a multidimensional approach. The team is truly valued for its knowledge. I need to be a leadership voice for the cancer center and it’s important that I use it.”

Previously, Lyons was associate director of clinical services and nursing at the University of Rochester James P. Wilmot Cancer Center.

“I was pretty comfortable there. I wasn’t looking to leave ... but here was a real challenge to build a fabulous system for the community,” she said. “And there also was the opportunity to work with [Hospital top physician Thomas] Lynch. I’ve had the chance to work with some of the best doctors in the world in this field, and have been fortunate enough to call them friend. I didn’t know Dr. Lynch, just by reputation. Those same friends told me I should not pass up this opportunity, to work with him, to work at the center.

Lyons has been working in cancer treatment for 35 years. She started her career at the University of Buffalo’s Roswell Park Cancer Institute as the chief nursing officer and vice-president of clinical operations. While there, she also served in the U.S. Army Reserves’ Army Nurse Corps. She earned the rank of major.

From there, she moved to the Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Maryland, where she was the executive director of cancer services. In 2002, she became the chief of the Office of Clinical Trials Support and Research Nursing in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda

“Treatment isn’t ‘one size fits all,” Lyons said. “We want to create an ideal patient experience. From the first time a patient picks up a phone and makes an appointment, how do we answer the phone? How long do they have to wait? We have to reassure them; they’re not knowing what happens next.

“Many patients have family support, or friends. But those that don’t have those systems in place—they’re a vulnerable population. We have services in place to help them; we have a standard of care, we work with the physicians to make sure we are doing it accurately and there’s no unnecessary harm.”

Lyons called the cancer center a one-stop center for women who had to go to different doctor’s offices for different treatments. “Now, not only can she have her radiology and pathology work done or ob/gyn appointment, they can get their chemo the same place instead of [going] somewhere else for your appointment. It’s a brilliant idea. We’re fine-tuning some of our processes with great success.”

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