Southtowns Radiation is working proactively to protect the health and safety of everyone — patients, visitors, employees, volunteers, students and contractors. We are working closely with the CDC, the Erie County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health to adapt as the situation evolves with best practices for infection control and guidance from public health officials.
Get the latest information on COVID-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Erie County Department of Health.
Along with other healthcare organizations, Southtowns Radiation is strictly enforcing screening precautions for both patients and visitors. These precautions are extremely important, as many of our patients have compromised immune systems and are particularly susceptible to illness.
Important things to know before your next visit:
For the safety of our staff, patients and visitors, we continue to require that everyone wear a mask for your appointments.
While we continue to be encouraged by the science and the new CDC recommendations released May 13, 2021, that allow vaccinated individuals to put down their masks in most settings, this does not apply in hospitals and healthcare settings at this time. We must continue to protect our most vulnerable patients and we appreciate everyone’s continued cooperation with the important public health measures of masking and physical distancing while at Roswell Park. We remain confident that the continued rollout of the vaccines and growing data about their impact will keep us inching forward toward resuming our normal lives.
We do not have specific information on whether COVID-19 infection will be more severe in cancer patients compared to healthy people; however, other viruses often cause more severe disease in people whose immune systems are low, such as cancer patients undergoing treatment. For this reason, it is important to take precautions to prevent infection. Infection occurs mostly through close, direct contact with someone who is carrying the virus.
Even for cancer patients, wearing a mask may not help prevent infection. Most surgical masks are not tight-fitting, and aerosols can get through. However, they may prevent you from touching your nose and mouth. Cancer patients should avoid overcrowded situations.
Overall, if you choose to use a mask to prevent any spread of infection, it is recommended to choose a surgical mask (DO NOT use an N95 mask), and use it combined with good hand hygiene.
Limit your movement in the community to activities/trips that are essential. If you must go out in public, our doctors recommend that you keep a social distance of at least six feet.
We are in this together, we need to protect each other. Follow the current measures taken by our federal, state and local authorities. The regulations change rapidly, so keep yourself and your family updated.
Cover coughs and sneezes
Wear a mask if you are sick
Clean and disinfect
Self-care (most cases):
Moderate to severe cases:
The CDC and WHO update information about the spread of COVID-19 daily, including changing conditions in the United States.
The risk of acquiring COVID-19 in hospitals in the United States and Canada is still very low. Healthcare facilities are evaluating patients for the risk of COVID-19, and if the suspicion is high, those patients are being isolated.
We have been proactive in protecting our community – patients, employees, volunteers, visitors, staff and vendors – to stay one step ahead of the virus. In summary, they include:
If your care team feels that an upcoming appointment, procedure or surgery can or should be rescheduled, they will be contacting you directly. At this time, we are only rescheduling non-urgent or routine appointments that can safely be postponed and this is at the discretion of your treating physician. Virtual visits are also being offered for certain appointments.
Depending on your diagnosis, types of treatment, current disease status and other medical conditions, you may be eligible for a virtual visit with your provider. Instead of coming in for a traditional face-to-face appointment, you will connect by video chat.
Our team of healthcare providers continues to work very hard to deliver excellent care to all our patients. You still have access to your care team — our nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacist —to ensure your treatments and medical care are not interrupted. In addition, we continue to deliver your treatment in the safest conditions and minimize your exposure to the COVID-19. In order to better take care of you, our team may contact you to confirm appointments or postpone them for a later time if medically appropriate. Depending on your diagnosis, current disease status, your treatment and your other medical conditions, you may be eligible for one of the following types of appointments:
If you are in remission after completing chemo-immunotherapy or chemotherapy and are on long-term follow up, we could postpone your appointment to the summer. We hope that by then the COVID-19 virus will be eradicated.
These measures will help us deliver excellent care to our patients while continuing the social distancing that is necessary to control the spread of COVID-19.
There are many different causes for fever, cough, shortness of breath, and flu-like symptoms.
If you have mild symptoms, call 716-817-5590 to find out what to do next. If you are coughing or have a fever and have access to a surgical mask (not an N95 mask), wear it when you go out to the hospital or a clinic appointment, to avoid infecting others.
If you have a cough or fever and access to a mask, put on a surgical mask on when going to the hospital or a clinic appointment to avoid spreading the infection to anyone else.
If you have only mild symptoms your physician may not want you to come to the clinic, so talk with your cancer care team FIRST before going out in public, coming to a hospital or clinic.
A person diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19 should avoid all contact with cancer patients. The cancer patients or their family members should let their clinical team know they have been in contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. The cancer patients should be monitored for symptoms and contact their clinical team if they develop fever, cough or shortness of breath.
To get COVID-19 you need to have had close contact with a person ill with COVID-19. Close contact includes:
Being indoors, such as a classroom or hospital waiting room, with a sick person with COVID-19 and remaining more than 6 feet away, does not put you at a higher risk of getting sick. Additionally, briefly walking by or being briefly in the same room as a sick person with COVID-19 does not put you at a higher risk of getting sick.
Stay home and avoid contact with others for 14 days from close contact with a person ill with COVID-19.
If you have more questions about staying home or practicing social distancing, please contact your local health department.
Take these steps to monitor your health while you stay home and practice social distancing:
Stay home and avoid contact with others for 14 days from last contact
Do not take public transportation such as buses, trains taxis, or ride-shares during the time you are monitoring your health.
Avoid all public spaces, public activities, and group gatherings during the time you are monitoring your health.
If necessary, the Erie County DOH can ensure that your basic needs (for example, food and medication) are being met.
Keep your distance from others (about 6 feet or 2 meters) and WASH or SANITIZE HANDS FREQUENTLY.
If you develop the below symptoms that could be consistent with a severe case of COVID19, seek medical attention immediately. Concerning symptoms include:
If you are receiving active chemotherapy or chemo-immunotherapy and develop respiratory symptoms or unexplained fevers please contact your care team immediately.
In medicine there are no absolutes. However, based on reports from other countries with COVID-19 infections, some patients have a higher risk for getting very sick from COVID-19:
We do not currently know if pregnant women have a greater chance of getting sick from COVID-19 than the general public, nor whether they are more likely to have serious illness as a result. Pregnant women experience changes in their bodies that may increase their risk of some infections. With viruses from the same family as COVID-19, and other viral respiratory infections, such as influenza, women have a higher risk of developing severe illness. It is always important for pregnant women to protect themselves from illnesses.
The data regarding harm of the virus to the fetus/baby during pregnancy is limited. However, the medical literature suggests that the COVID-19 is not passed to the baby during pregnancy nor does it cause known medical problems in the baby.
What about breastfeeding?
Much is unknown about how COVID-19 is spread. Person-to-person spread is thought to occur mainly via respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes, similar to how influenza (flu) and other respiratory pathogens spread. In limited studies on women with COVID-19 and another coronavirus infection, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), the virus has not been detected in breast milk. However, we do not know whether mothers with COVID-19 can transmit the virus via breast milk. For additional information about breastfeeding guidelines, check the information provided by the CDC.
We hope to get more information as we learn more regarding this topic and we encourage you to discuss your concerns about COVID-19 with your obstetrician.
Will the vaccine have negative effects on my cancer treatment?
It’s unlikely to affect your cancer treatment, but very little is known right now about the interactions of the vaccine with cancer therapy or with cancer patients. Your cancer treatments would probably have a negative effect on the vaccine, because the vaccine works with your immune system, and most cancer treatments suppress your immune response. It may be that the vaccine won’t work very well in people who are in active treatment.
But even if the cancer treatment decreases the effectiveness of the vaccine by as much as 50%, it’s still worth getting, because if you have at least 50% protection, that is a good thing.
Will the vaccines fully prevent COVID-19 or just lessen the severity if I get it?
Nobody is claiming that the vaccines are 100% effective. In some of the people who have tested positive after being vaccinated, they may have developed COVID during an early window period, like after the first shot but before the second. They may have already had asymptomatic COVID at the time that they got the first vaccine or the second. Recall, the incubation period can be as long as two weeks. Then there are people who simply got COVID. They got the full vaccine, proper period elapsed, and they got COVID.
There’s no question that you’re going to reduce the likelihood of getting COVID, and even more important, you will dramatically reduce the likelihood of severe COVID that will lead to hospitalization and death. Just because a vaccine is not 100% effective, it’s not an all-or-none situation. It may be partially effective, it may be that you get COVID but not as severe as you otherwise would have had it had you not been immunized. There’s benefit even if there is COVID.
So even if you get vaccinated, you still need to wear a mask, wash your hands and practice social distancing.
Conveniently located just minutes from any of Buffalo’s Southtowns, you can find us on Buffalo Medical Group’s Orchard Park campus on Route 240 (North Buffalo Road) north of Route 20A and south of Webster Road.
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If you would like to make an appointment or consult our physicians for a second opinion, please contact us at 716-817-5590. A representative will contact you to schedule a convenient time for you to meet with our team.
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