Health care clinic plans for its future

Petrified and shaking, Jeanette Bloomquist walked into Hamed and Ferial Tewfik's outpatient radiation clinic in January with cancer in her left breast.

'I was scared to death,' Bloomquist said. 'I felt like I was going to be sick.'

But then a funny thing happened — literally. Her doctor made her laugh.

'She kind of teased me about my weight,' Bloomquist said.

But it was a good kind of ribbing — the kind a beloved friend might give. And then, perhaps sensing her nervousness, Ferial Tewfik asked to give Bloomquist a hug.

'I just really liked hugging her,' Bloomquist said.

The 63-year-old Letts woman found herself in the Iowa City Cancer Treatment Center that day after first having been to Mercy Hospital in Iowa City for her annual mammogram in October. Doctors at that appointment discovered a lump and, within a matter of weeks, Bloomquist was preparing for radiation therapy.

She could have sought a second opinion or gone to a larger hospital for treatment. But Bloomquist said her sister had been through radiation at the Tewfik's free-standing radiation oncology facility and loved the experience.

After spending just a few minutes in the clinic herself, Bloomquist said she understood why.

'With this stuff, you never know what the outcome will be, but I just felt safe,' she said. 'If you want to cry, you can cry, and there will be someone there to hold your hand.'

That's exactly the type of care the Tewfiks set out to provide when they established the community-based Iowa City Cancer Treatment Center in 1985. And it's the type of care they say the facility will continue to provide after they retire.

The couple has no immediate plans to step away from radiation oncology, but they want to have the option. So they're partnering with the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics to manage the facility, which would give them the option to retire in a couple years.

The Board of Regents last month endorsed that partnership by approving a UIHC lease agreement for the center at 3010 Northgate Dr. The lease's initial term is five years, with three additional five-year extensions.

The UI will pay $461,076 a year for base rent, plus all property taxes, insurance and operating costs.

According to regent documents, the center will continue providing community-based oncology services fitting with the UIHC's patient care, education and research missions.

The UI intends to fit out the building's unused second floor space, and the UI could buy the property in year 10 of the lease.

UIHC officials, in the regent documents, express interest in taking over the facility to continue the 'outstanding community based oncology services' the Tewfiks have offered for years.

Should all the necessary approvals go through, Hamed Tewfik said, the clinic will be under the new UI management in a few months — although he stressed that nothing will change.

And UIHC officials say they wouldn't want it to. 

'They really have been the epitome of an outstanding community practice,' said John Buatti, professor and chairman of the UI Department of Radiation Oncology. 'They set the facility up independently and have worked with many providers in the community, and they have done an outstanding job.'

'It was our dream'

The husband-and-wife couple, from Egypt, worked at the UIHC in the 1970s and 1980s before joining the Mercy Iowa City staff in 1985 in their quest to treat patients in a community-based, family-like setting.

'It was our dream,' Farial Tewfik said.

Hamed Tewfik said he saw the need for a community-based treatment center while serving as a professor and director of the UI Department of Radiation Oncology. So the couple met with local health care providers, and Mercy Iowa City agreed to construct a building for radiation outpatient services.

The clinic opened in September 1985, and although Mercy served as its landlord, the Tewfiks bought their own equipment, hired their own staff and took patient referrals from around the region.

The Tewfiks have continued to partner with providers across the community over the years — including Mercy and the UIHC — in an effort to build a support system and improve their practice. Buatti, with the UIHC, is among those who have offered assistance to the clinic.

'We have a very good productive relationship,' Hamed Tewfik said.

In its original space in the Mercy Medical Plaza, the Tewfik's clinic treated about 25 patients a day in a 'warm,' inviting, family-type setting.

'We were the first radiation clinic with a fire place,' Tewfik said, describing a family room in the clinic intended to 'take anxiety away.'

The Tewfiks also have focused on providing a high level of personal interaction and care.

'When you have cancer, you are upset and tense,' Farial Tewfik said. 'So we make sure they see the same people and faces, and that helps with the anxiety.'

The staff and physicians spend a lot of time getting to know their patients, family members and answering questions.

'It's different from the sterile atmosphere in a hospital,' Hamed Tewfik said.

And, he said, decreasing a patient's anxiety often can increase a patient's prognosis.

'No question,' he said.

'Maintain the legacy'

Over time, the Tewfiks started to dream again about a clinic with more space and better parking. In 2010, with their lease expiring, the couple identified an ideal location off Interstate 80 on the east side of Iowa City and decided to build.

They moved in Feb. 1, 2013, to their current Northgate Drive location.

'People love it,' Tewfik said, adding that finalizing a plan for its future seemed a logical next step. 'We are not going to work forever.'

Buatti said the university has increased its collaboration with the Tewfiks in recent years, so it made sense to partner with the UI in this transition.

'We'll really try to maintain the legacy and extend it a bit in terms of clinical trials,' Buatti said.

The university manages a couple other community-based oncology clinics in the state — including ones in Clinton and Burlington. There are no immediate plans to add more because they are based on individual community needs, which are being met at this time, Buatti said.

Ann Smothers of Iowa City, said she feels very fortunate to have gone through her cancer treatment in such a 'warm and lovely' environment and with such supportive physicians.

'The environment was absolutely lovely,' Smothers said, adding that she mostly appreciated the people and the time they dedicated to her case. 'It's so nice to sit down and talk to knowledgeable people who are honest with you.'

Smothers is now a cancer survivor with a strong prognosis. But, she said, if she ever needed treatment for something else, 'I would go back to them.'

'Their reputation is solid, and the care is exceptional.'

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