City of Hope Cancer Center Chicago

BRUTAL.. still BRUTAL.

I am hoping that since acquiring CTCA that CITY OF HOPE has adapted a new business model from that of CTCA’s to be a more patient centric and compassionate vs CTCA’s money hungry cash cow’s business model.
I was diagnosed in 2010 with stage 3B melanoma on my right arm above my elbow. I had an amazing experience for the first 2 yrs of my journey in the care of Dr Levine with CTCA-Chicago campus from 2010-2012. I had 4 surgeries to get clear margins, 1 skin graft taken from my upper thigh area, 14 lymph nodes removed 2 (surgeries), 1 recurrence, Interferon injections 5 days per week/5 months of at-home at the highest dose recommended by the FDA (self-administered therapy since I lived over 200 miles away).
CTCA’s commercials during those years said something like “Cancer not quitting and neither did they” WELL, CTCA QUIT ME!
I had relocated to NJ with my same employer but need to transfer my care to the Pennsylvania CTCA Hospital. I was informed I had been “blacklisted” for non-payment of a pet scan and therefore could not make an appointment, or transfer care until the previous outstanding bill was paid for in full! Everything should have been paid for as far as I knew. This was a surprise.
I had pretty good insurance, BCBS of IN at the time. CTCA had billed every time successfully in the past but on one occasion someone at CTCA had billed a pet scan to the wrong BCBS! It shouldn’t have happened and they should have caught their own error, as they had all my current insurance information. They billed BCBS of OH. I’d never had BCBS of OH. CTCA could not get payment from them - go figure! Instead of alerting me of the issue they turned me over to collections, which they failed to alert me to as well. And it was all due to CTCA’s mistake in billing the wrong insurance provider, and then failing to inform the patient!
It took me sometime to figure out what happened. In the mean time my job was then transferring back to IN so I decided just to wait until I got back to IN to chase it anymore, as my follow-up care would have to be with CTCA-Chicago’s Campus going forward.
I returned to IN and got to the bottom of the problem. CTCA was apologetic and did re-bill the correct insurance company. Cancer doesn’t wait! So I moved forward. At the time, ironically I worked in Oncology, Clinical Research. I needed a referral. I got the name of a good specialist at IU’s Simon Center, made my appt and never looked back! In 2014 the cancer metastasized to my brain. I had a tumor both in/on my brain the size of two golf balls. I had a craniotomy and 5 rounds of stereotactic radiation. My doctors at Simon Center were brilliant and I enlisted a neurosurgeon from Goodman Campbell Brain & Spine to do my craniotomy. My team of Drs and surgeons were phenomenal! 5 months later it I opted for Gamma Ray Knife Surgery, in lieu of a second craniotomy, and I completed 3 of 4 rounds of Yervoy immunotherapy. Joyously, I’ve been NED since 2015. Unfortunately, brain surgery, radiation and immunotherapy all have systemic forever side effects that have left me handicapped.
I am forever grateful for those first two years with a caring oncologist, Dr Levine and his team at CTCA-Chicago campus.
I can’t help but wonder how many other people they did that to, how many died?
Some years later I saw CTCA’s commercial ad on TV about how CTCA never quit, and it infuriated me! Not because they ran out of treatment options or ideas, nor was I a hard to treat case, NO. They quit/failed me because I had an outstanding pet scan bill! One they mis-billed for! After seeing that TV ad, I sent a letter to Dr Levine telling him of my experience, as I have shared here. He responded, apologized over my ordeal, asked a few questions. He did invite me back, but by that time I was already established with a new ONC team and would not leave them unless necessary.
So in closing, I hope COH has cleaned up CTCA-Chicago campus’ act!

I lover my dr Aithel...then I was sent to zion and I liked dr citron...then I got farrington... I felt like she never listened to what I Saud always just swept it under the rug then caught covid 19 pneumonia in Oct. I was there and seen her in August...no one back home would give me meds because they were not my dr, called ers n urgent Care they wouldn't see me due to having that...Farrington refused to give me antuobiotic n I sent email sayn she was my dr she can't help me know n I was upset that she always swept everything under the rug ect...I got email back i was kicked out!!! Was diagnosed w covid pneumonia week before Halloween I went sick until January 3 n finally my fibromialga dr gave me antibiotics....now here I am 4 years later trying to get into a local oncologist n they won't take me without a referral and Farrington care team won't give me 1! That isn't ctca standard of care!!

Update: CTCA is now renamed City of Hope.

The word HOPE really should be included somewhere in the centers' names!

Mother was a registered nurse
who reached out to them years ago, following her recent end-stage diagnosis.
Beginning with that initial phone call, the top-notch staff earned both her respect and her trust.
If a course of treatment wasn't providing her with positive results within a few months, her specialist didn't hesitate to change course.
Logical, right?

We'll always be grateful for the extra YEARS of quality living that she was able to enjoy because of the CTCA's care.
We offer a heartfelt THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of the wonderful team!

Once the hospital was sold from CTCA to City of Hope, the professional atmosphere change to adequate. The reduction of staff to make the hospital profitable resulted in hiring just anyone. The care, concern and exceptional quality of the staff is GONE.
It is sad to see.

This place is amazing. My mother was treated in 2011 for Breast cancer. In Feb of 2024 she was given 3wks if she decided against fighting. It's Dec. 11, 2024 and she is still fighting and they are still giving it their all. Her team is truly amazing. I recommend this place to anyone who is fighting the fight against cancer. No one fights alone there. It's very clean, extremely friendly and caring people.

Went from AWESOME to DISAPPOINTING. When this used to be Cancer Treatment Centers of America or CTCA it was absolutely amazing and awesome. Never had any issues in 3 years. Now with the new CORPORATE OWNERS City of Hope or COH this place has really gone down. Used to be packed and vibrant with people. Now the population of patients has gone down tremendously because patients are going elsewhere. Lost its very personal touch to a cold sterile environment. While the doctors nurses and staff are the same the vibe has totally changed. Sorry to see CTCA gone as here is another prime example of the downfall of corporate America suits taking over. They need to reevaluate their corporate model as it’s NOT working.

Have oligodendroglioma. This place is awesome!

The receptionist in the oncology emergency
department with dark hair was rude and not compassionate at all. My boyfriend went there and as he was in pain trying to answer her questions for registration she was being rude to him and informed us to go somewhere else if we didn’t like it. As he was in tons of pain, we wouldn’t go any farther to another healthcare facility. She was rude to us as I watched her treat others with respect. It made us feel sad and actually question her actions as this is a cancer hospital and compassion should be required.

They've the nicest people at this facility.. I'm so glad I came to City Of Hope!!