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« Donald Powless , 64 , Albia , waits to be prepared for the start of chemotherapy at Mahaska Health Partnership . Mahaska Health has been collaborating with other healthcare providers to better treat cancer patients .
County Hospitals and Clinics in Albia , who would only renew the prescription if Powless had a physical , which he was overdue for .
That doctor also recommended a colonoscopy for Powless . That ’ s how they found the tumor . The doctor asked Powless where he would like to be treated and ticked off some options . Those options were all large hospitals , where Powless feared being more of a number than a name . They were also varying distances from Albia , none close enough that he wanted to make the drive for treatment .
“ And I was like , man . You know doc , if I have to go do that , I am going to be a wreck . I was like : ‘ You ’ re physically going to drag me in these places . I ’ m going to absolutely hate it . I ’ m going to be in depression mode , whatever . I don ’ t know if I even want to do it .’”
That ’ s when his doctor suggested Mahaska Health Partnership .
Jayne Meuler , with Mission Cancer + Blood , prepares the machine that will deliver chemotherapy drugs to Donald Powless . Powless is undergoing chemotherapy at Mahaska Health Partnership .
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JEFF WILFORD staff writer
“ have cancer .”
For a man who already had extreme medical anxiety — whose blood pressure would spike just walking into a doctor ’ s office — these were disastrous words for Donald Powless to hear .
“ My head went to all the crazy places ,” Powless , 64 , said . “ All the medical care , the anxiety I knew I was going to have and all the treatments and surgeries and you know , the fear and all that stuff that ’ s there .”
The cancer was discovered almost by accident . Powless needed a prescription renewed , but his old doctor retired . He saw a new doctor at Monroe
“ He said : ‘ They are doing cancer treatment over there — phenomenal treatment — and they are on the level that I am , as far as patient care , one on one , you ’ re not a number , you ’ re a person that they know , they get to know and they remember ,” Powless said .
Dr . Daniel Kollmorgen , a surgical oncologist at MHP , has been developing the hospital ’ s oncology department for more than a year now .
Iowa has the second highest incidence of cancer per capita , Kollmorgen said . When he started consulting at MHP in 2022 , he noticed a higher incidence of advanced cancer , stage 3 and stage 4 , in Mahaska and surrounding counties . That told Kollmorgen that the cancers weren ’ t being discovered at an earlier stage because fewer people had cancer screenings during the pandemic . And the earlier the cancer is found , the greater the chances of successfully treating it .
“ And so with us , this region being behind on screening , and all the cancer cases , it ’ s kind of a nobrainer that we need to up our game ,” Kollmorgen said .
A centerpiece of this effort is MHP ’ s tumor board , a multi-disciplinary collection of cancer specialists and support providers in cancer treatment at different hospitals who meet online monthly to review cases . This helps condense the time patients spend traveling around seeing different specialists ,
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