The ETC is not an emergency room and does not provide general emergency care. If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please call 911 or go to the nearest ER.
City of Hope patients: How to access the ETC
- Call the main patient line at 949-671-HOPE (4673) to discuss your specific symptoms and be referred to the ETC for an appointment. Between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., select option 4, to reach the City of Hope Orange County after-hours team.
Cancer survivor Arash Rounaghi knows his body, and he knows when something feels wrong. He remembers going to his local hospital’s emergency room when he developed worrisome symptoms that made him concerned about a reoccurrence.
“They started testing for everything, and it took forever,” the Laguna Beach resident says. “When the results came back, they were abnormal. I knew instinctively my cancer was back, but they insisted on even more testing. They meant well, but it was stressful.”
Going to City of Hope’s Evaluation and Treatment Center (ETC) in Duarte was “like night and day,” Rounaghi says. “Being a City of Hope patient, they knew all about my cancer, and they had a system in place to do what needed to be done."
Now, with the opening of City of Hope’s cancer specialty hospital in Irvine, a City of Hope ETC will be available by appointment in the heart of Orange County, providing specialized urgent cancer care to patients of the nationally ranked cancer research and treatment organization.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of the night, a weekend or a holiday. If you’re our patient and you’re having any issues related to cancer, we’re here for you,” says Peter Nguyen, D.O., an emergency medicine physician at the City of Hope Orange County ETC. “Whether it’s a side effect from cancer treatment, progression of disease or symptoms, or problems related to cancer or hematologic disease, our clinicians are onsite delivering expert, individualized care.”
The ETC offers City of Hope patients immediate assessment or care related to their cancer or their treatment. It is staffed with cancer-focused experts specially trained in recognizing and managing cancer-related symptoms and complications.
The ETC also eliminates the anxiety of having to visit an ER, which may not have the capabilities to assess and treat complex cancer issues. And it offers a better environment for infection prevention than most ERs can provide — an important consideration for patients with compromised immune systems.
“When you’re in the thick of it with cancer, having a specialized ETC with experts who know you and your medical history makes a big difference,” says Rounaghi. “It’s one of the best things City of Hope offers its patients, and it’s right here in our community.”
This isn’t standard cancer care. This is lifesaving cancer care. This is Hope.
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