Julie Adams and Lorna Cook took a calculated gamble three years ago when they decided to leave secure employment in the public sector, mortgage their homes, and seek to create a new paradigm in private healthcare – Chemo@home.
Chemotherapy patients are traditionally admitted to a hospital day unit, consuming time as well as extra costs for patient and carer.
With the goal of administering treatment to cancer patients in the comfort of their own residence, Chemo@home’s unique model of care started with no patients and very little support.
Despite a slow start, about 500 treatments were administered in the business’s first year, growing to 1,200 the next.
This year, it’s expected at least 2,500 treatments will be administered.
Originally employing just two nurses, Chemo@home now has a staff of nine, and has also added two support staff and two pharmacists.
Ms Adams, an oncology pharmacist, had previously managed a small home cancer service in the public sector for over a decade.
Ms Cook, a nurse and MBA graduate, had experience with hospital-based oncology and also worked for a pharmaceutical company, where she won numerous sales and marketing awards.
Together the women combined their expertise to shape their startup into a fully accredited Australian Council on Health Services specialised healthcare provider.
The service is supported by almost every single health fund with no out-of-pocket expense to the patient; and negotiations are under way with the state government to provide the service to public patients.
Demand for the in-home treatment model has expanded into other illness areas, and Chemo@home has partnerships with 70 specialist doctors, including oncologists, haematologists, gastroenterologists, rheumatologists and neurologists.
Chemo@home expects continued growth via public, private and pharmaceutical company contracts and the founders hope the service can be extended to rural regions, with plans to enter Adelaide this year and other states in 2017.
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