✓ Over 250 "hospitality houses" and Ronald McDonald Houses renewed  

  ✓ Lodging facilities in 121 cities across the country in 46 states!

  ✓ New hospitals added include the Cancer Treatment Center of America in Newnan, GA (about 30 miles from Atlanta)  

  ✓ Six locations of the Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada added to the site. Welcome to our newest partner! 

 

Joe's House Website

• Our newest partner is Houston Ground Angels. Houston Ground Angels is a network of volunteers who donate their time to help provide free transportation to patients from the Houston area airports to their required healthcare facilities.      
• Don't forget if you need assistance with lodging that is not listed on our website or are a vendor that wants to be listed send us an email at info@joeshouse.org.    
• Follow us on Twitter 

Our 2012 annual fund drive was a success. Our heartfelt thanks go out to each and every donor. We truly could not do what we do without you!

  ✓ Added maps that have both the hospitals and lodging facilities clearly plotted   

  ✓ Added a cleaner lodging search process and explanations of the two different ways places to stay are displayed   

  ✓ Improved the lodging details page, plus added an additional map and an amenities lists with bullet points   

  ✓ Geocoded each lodging facility down to the tenth of a mile

 

Maps and more click HERE to see the new enhancements

You should also be able to search for the article online once the magazine has hit the news stands in early October. 

• Our newest hotel partner - SuiteAmerica. SuiteAmerica offers furnished apartments which are a great alternative for long stays. Look for SuiteAmerica in Bethesda, Washington, D.C., San Diego, and San Francisco.  
• Thanks to a request of the mother of a sick child we added our newest hospital - Los Angeles Children's Hospital   
• More hospitals added to Charleston, SC. At the request of an oncology doctor in Charleston, we've added 3 more hospitals in the area  
• Hotel renewal for 2013  - it's that time again. We'll be reaching out to all of our lodging facilities to ensure we have the most current information and rates. If you are a vendor and want to send us your 2013 rates early, please send them to info@joeshouse.org.    
• Follow us on Twitter 

As always, if you are aware of a place to stay that we should know about or you are a hotel that wants to be involved with Joe's House, send us an email at info@joeshouse.org.  

• Check out our newest cities; Rochester, NY and Athens, GA!  This brings our city count to well over 100! 
• Hotel renewal for 2012  - it's that time again. See article below for details   
• Although the vast majority of patients and family members use Joe's House website - www.joeshouse.org -  to search for lodging, we do have a toll free line for those that do not have Internet access (877-JOESHOU). We've had over 1,500s call so far this year. Many thanks to Mary Jane Saban our very busy agent.   
• Follow us on Twitter 

As always if you are aware of a place to stay that we should know about or you are a hotel that wants to be involved with Joe's House, send us an email at info@joeshouse.org.   

We'd like to welcome over 200 new hotels and hospitality houses that joined Joe's House over the last three months. We lost a few participating properties, but renewed over 1,700! We are thrilled to have gained so many new lodging facilities that specialize in, and cater to the traveling patient population! Here are a few examples, but there are lots more:

• Both the Holiday Inn Brookline and the Best Western Inn at Longwood in Boston.

• Four Marriotts and a Doubletree in Bethesda.

• Amazing responses in Phoenix, Portland, Oregon, Dallas, Birmingham and more.

A special thanks to the 30 + members of Intercontinental Hotels Group that extended their hospital rates in critical cities such as Houston, Philadelphia, New York, and Seattle to name a few.

Know of a property that would like to be on our website? Send an email to info@joeshouse.org.

Joe's House President Ann Calahan and board member Maureen Rigney, a social worker on staff at Lung Cancer Alliance, will present a poster on the subject of medical tourism, "Patients who travel for treatment: Current status, future trends, and available resources" at the 2011 Association for Oncology Social Work conference in St Louis in May.

• What is medical travel, or medical tourism?

  
  Medical tourism is the process by which patients travel to places outside their immediate vicinity, sometimes overseas, to receive treatment for their condition.

• How long have patients been traveling for treatment?
  

  As long as we have recorded history. Ancient Greeks built temples to honor their god of medicine, Asclepius, which people visited from far and wide hopes of a cure for their ailments. In the United States, people traveled as early as the 18^th century to spas and retreats seeking treatment for diseases like tuberculosis.

   

• How many patients travel for treatment within the United States?
  
  In recent years medical tourism, both in and out of the country, has increased dramatically. The practice of medical tourism is increasingly being legitimized by both employers and insurance companies, and is an important topic in today's healthcare debate.
  
  A 2010 study by Deloitte Center for Health Solutions found that 7% of American patients travel outside their immediate area for treatment.  While the real number of those who do so is unknown, we can try to make an educated guess about the potential number of cancer patients who do. The CDC indicates that 18.6 million adults have been diagnosed with cancer in the US. If 7% of those patients travel for treatment, that's over 1.3 million, and that doesn't include the vast number of children with cancer who travel for treatment. Specialized pediatric cancer treatment centers are limited in the country so children with cancer often travel for treatment.
  
• Why do cancer patients travel for treatment?
  
  For a variety of reasons. Some are seeking the best care at a center of excellence for their particular cancer. Some need specific treatment(s) not offered closer to home. Others travel to take part in clinical trials, and still others to receive treatment closer to the support and care of loved ones.
• How can Joe's House help?
  
  While patients often travel for treatment for the best of reasons, the reality is that doing so can be both an emotional and financial challenge. Joe's House helps to fill a critical need for those who travel by helping them identify the best housing values available, in two easy to use formats, by phone or online.

Joe's House is incredibly lucky to have Charlee Vees as the voice for our toll free line.

Charlee spent the first 10 years of her working life in social services and comes to Joe's House through our partner Mercy Medical and the National Patient Travel Center Helpline where she began as a volunteer and now works full time. 

When we asked her what she liked most about her job, she said "...talking to people on a daily basis, who are facing unbelievable hardships physically, emotionally, and financially who retain their sense of humor, their faith, their tenacity, and their humanity, and knowing that through the resources of Joe's House and other organizations we are able to lift their burden just a bit."

She says this too about her experience working for Joe's House and the National Patient Travel Center Helpline, "Our mission is to provide the best possible experience for our patients and the most useful resources for our patients and their family as they undergo some of the toughest times of their lives battling illnesses of all types and at all ages.  Their courage and determination is an inspiration daily.  I can't tell you what a privilege it is to be able to provide some assistance in their journey."