Actual Testimony from the Women's Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1997 presented on Wednesday, November 5, 1997 by the U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Health Care (S 249)

Mrs. Lillie Shockney, Education and Outreach Director of the Johns Hopkins Breast Center, former Director of Performance Improvement and Utilization Management of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a nurse and breast cancer survivor provided testimony at this hearing. She described the Johns Hopkins ambulatory surgery mastectomy program and the successes that have been achieved through improvements implemented in anesthesia management, surgical technique and treatment, patient education, and other clinical improvements that resulted in creating this state of the art care and treatment at this facility. She also raised concerns that such a bill would result in discouraging other hospitals from making the needed improvements warranted in surgical care that would result in the procedure being less physically and emotionally traumatic for patients. Such a bill, though well intended, would allow surgical care to continue to be status quo with patients being hospitalized for several days due to side effects of surgical treatment and lack of patient education and preparation. It would also be acceptable to doctors for patients to have pain and nausea after breast cancer surgery since it would justify the medical reason for needing overnight hospitalization. This type of treatment needs to be discouraged rather than encouraged, and pressure needs to be placed on hospitals to make the needed clinical intervention changes to eliminate side effects from surgery and anesthesia that result in the need for inpatient hospitalization. She spoke at length about patient empowerment and preparing a patient well physically and emotionally for what to expect before, during and after surgery, which is the Hopkins' model. She talked about "matching" newly diagnosed patients with a Johns Hopkins Breast Cancer Survivor Volunteer who serves as a counselor and guide in helping patients along their journey of breast cancer treatment. At the close of her testimony when questions were being raised the following discussion was documented and is part of the permanent record of this hearing:

Senator Rockefeller: "A final point. Excuse me, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Visco, what Ms. Shockney is describing, is that fairly common, or is this kind of care partner fairly unusual?"

Ms. Visco, President of the National Breast Cancer Coalition: " It is a very unusual situation. If the Johns Hopkins model worked for every woman and were implemented everywhere across this country, we would not need to be here. But that is not reality."

Ms. Shockney: "I don't know why we can't make it a reality."....

Senator Gramm: "I want to thank each of you for coming. I especially want to thank you, Mrs. Shockney. Johns Hopkins is a great university, has a great medical center. If I could buy a policy that guaranteed my wife to stay in the hospital longer or buy a policy that guaranteed her right to be treated by you and your program, I would choose being treated by you and your program...."