Vail Health’s unique home care program for patients undergoing cancer treatment wins innovation award
Shaw at Home, an extension of the Shaw Cancer Center, is an at-home, oncology specific palliative care program
Vail Health/Courtesy photo
Going through cancer treatment is hard on patients and their families. Vail Health’s Shaw at Home program, an at-home and community-based palliative care program for oncological patients at Shaw Cancer Center, aims to make it a little bit easier.
“Shaw at Home is a grassroots effort to fill the gap within our community to meet the needs of our seriously ill and complex patient population in the world of oncology here at Shaw,” said Erin Perejda, a licensed clinical social worker at Shaw Cancer Center who manages and develops and oversees the Shaw at Home program.
Gypsum resident Patrick Johnson decided to participate in Shaw at Home after his wife, Debbie Webber, had been in treatment for metastatic breast cancer at Shaw Cancer Center for years.
“I was always ultra protective of her, and I thought that Shaw was bad because of how they were having to treat her, and what we have in Western medicine isn’t the greatest,” Johnson said. “After they started coming to the house and I got to meet those people on a personal level, in my home, it changed the relationship so much. I saw them as loving, caring — I’m going to say angels.”
Shaw Cancer Center recently received the 2025 Association of Cancer Care Centers Innovator Award for the Shaw at Home program.
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The origins of Shaw at Home
Shaw at Home is a home and community-based palliative care program. Palliative care differs from hospice care in that palliative care is based on serving patients with serious oncological illnesses throughout their treatment, which can end with a transition out of treatment and back to regular life or into end-of-life care.
“This is for anyone diagnosed with cancer, and there are huge benefits to having a palliative care team to support you and your family through a cancer diagnosis, even when we anticipate the outcome to be the best possible outcome,” Perejda said. “It’s helping people to live their best possible life despite having a serious illness.”
The program began as a “passion project” of Perejda and Dr. Patricia Hardenbergh, a radiation oncologist and medical director of Shaw Cancer Center, in September 2020, Perejda said.
“We had identified as a system that there was this major gap in the community where a lot of our patients would have needs that would arise within the home care setting, but we would have minimal to no resources to turn to to meet those needs,” Perejda said.
The goal was to have patients avoid unnecessary hospital visits when their symptoms could be treated at home, while also providing a more continuous option for end-of-life care.
“We felt like we needed to do something, so we did,” Perejda said.
The program, funded by donations from community members, began serving patients in June 2023.
Shaw at Home focuses on preserving and improving quality of life, managing symptoms and “understanding what’s important to the patient as things change with their care,” Perejda said.
All Shaw Cancer Center patients are eligible for Shaw at Home treatment. Most in-home visits occur in the Eagle River Valley, and telehealth services are available for patients who live further away.
The program’s specific combination of a focus on oncology patients and wraparound care is unique.
“I have been hard pressed to find an oncology-specific home and community-based palliative care program,” Perejda said.
How Shaw at Home integrates with cancer treatment
To date, Shaw at Home has served 144 unique patients, ages 24 to 91, through nearly 1,600 visits. Eighty-four percent of patients served in the program’s first year had stage IV cancer.
The Shaw at Home team is made up of a nurse practitioner, nurses, Vail Health’s chaplain and a social worker.
The same nurse practitioners working alongside patients in the Shaw Cancer Center clinic rotate through overseeing Shaw at Home.
“That way, they have a really good handle on their comorbidities, their toxicities, they know their treatment plan and schedule,” Perejda said.
When possible, the team tries to visit patients as a unit. “The crux of palliative care, the heart and soul of it, is that you’re doing this as an interdisciplinary group,” Perejda said.
Care is “completely tailored to the patient, and they’re all unique in terms of what they need,” Perejda said.
“That’s what we’re there to do, is to understand what’s important to them, understand their values, recognize when things are transitioning and be able to have conversations with patients and their families to bend and flex when we need to based on what they’re needing,” Perejda said.
Patients still go to Shaw Cancer Center for their active cancer treatment — chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Shaw at Home “wraps around them and is built to come alongside them for extra support,” Perejda said.
At-home medical care can include hydration, wound care and taking labs. “There are a few medical interventions we can do at home, but the bulk of their cancer care happens at Shaw Cancer Center,” Perejda said. “We don’t change or replace that.”
‘A different experience when you’re in someone’s home’
Shaw at Home’s at-home care has transformed relationships between patients, their families and their medical caregivers by personalizing the process.
“It’s such a different experience when you’re in someone’s home versus when you’re in a clinic setting,” Perejda said.
“We have the luxury of allocating a lot of time to our patients on the home-based side, so we can take 90 minutes with the patient in their home to talk about their understanding, their needs, their questions, and relay that back,” Perejda said. “This allows you to really have the time to get to know the patient, really understand what’s important, what they’re struggling with, and build relationships.”
Webber has been in treatment for metastatic breast cancer for five years.
“It has not been an easy journey, and I don’t know that we would have made it this far without Shaw at Home,” Johnson said. “They come to the house, and we talk, and we look at the pictures on the wall. They’ve gotten to know us as more than just a patient.”
This past winter, Johnson and Webber spent two months in Florida, where Webber received treatment at a local cancer center.
“I’m going to describe it was a meat market. We were nothing but a patient to stick a needle into, get the drug in you and get you out the door because they wanted to get the next person in the treatment room,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t wait to get back to our sweet little cancer center.”
Johnson’s affection for the Shaw Cancer Center stems from the year and a half he and Webber have worked with Shaw at Home. “The rest of the staff is just as amazing, I don’t want to gloss over any of that, but Shaw at Home — it’s a game changer,” he said.
“They’re here. Sitting on the couch, holding your hand, really, truly caring for the patients. It has just made it so personable. I never want to lose contact with these people,” Johnson said. “They will sit and cry with you, because they care. They truly care.”
“I hope nobody has to go through this journey, but if they do, I hope they get Shaw at Home care,” Johnson said.
Shaw at Home wins 2025 ACCC Innovator Award
Vail Health’s Shaw Cancer Center was one of six recipients of the 2025 Association of Cancer Care Centers Innovator Award for the Shaw at Home program.
For the Shaw at Home team, the award felt like another indication — on top of glowing patient and family reviews — that their work was going in the right direction.
“To hear the feedback from our patients and to look at our patient experience scores and to hear from our patients how meaningful this experience is for them is so rewarding,” Perejda said. “To see it come back around and be highlighted through ACCC and recognized nationally is amazing. I’m so proud of this team … and I know how grateful they are to be doing this work.”
To find out more about Shaw at Home, call 970-569-7622.
