St. Elizabeth Hospital Partners With Cancer Center
Mary Bird Perkins Building in Ascension Parish
Photo available for download. Captions available at end of release.
(Baton Rouge, LA) – Citizens of Ascension Parish and surrounding areas will have more convenient access to outpatient cancer care as St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC) partner to provide continued excellence in patient care. The partnership will build and operate a new radiation treatment facility, investing a total of $6 million - approximately $4 million in leading-edge cancer treatment technology and $2 million in additional construction and renovation.
“Together, we are addressing an important need – local access to high quality cancer care,” said Dee LeJeune, president and CEO of St. Elizabeth Hospital. “We are delighted to partner with Mary Bird Perkins to make it possible for St. Elizabeth and the physician community to provide a broader range of critical services for cancer patients in the greater Ascension area.”
The new treatment facility will feature advanced technology, including a high-energy linear accelerator utilizing image guided radiation therapy (IGRT); intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT); state of the art imaging using positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT); sophisticated treatment planning stations, as well as physics and dosimetry quality assurance instrumentation and software. The facility will also be supported by MBPCC’s sixteen member medical physics team. Medical physics is a discipline vital to the provision of radiation therapy. The partners anticipate that construction of the facility will begin in fall 2007.
The radiation oncologists at the new facility will include members of the Southeast Louisiana Radiation Oncology Group (SLROG) practicing exclusively at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center locations. This group of physicians has over 130 years of combined experience and, during the next few months, two additional radiation oncologists will be joining the group for a total of eight SLROG-member physicians.
Mary Bird Perkins and St. Elizabeth Hospital will also continue to jointly enhance outreach services with a grassroots approach to saving lives through education and early detection. The organizations have a history of partnering to provide free educational and cancer screening initiatives. With the support of local healthcare professionals, it is expected that these efforts will only grow in the future, ultimately improving the health of the community-at-large for generations to come.
“It is an honor to have the opportunity to work with St. Elizabeth, community physicians and residents in the greater Ascension area to support cancer care,” said Todd Stevens, president and CEO of MPBCC. “Through comprehensive outreach services and advanced treatment, we look forward to developing together a dynamic partnership dedicated to fighting cancer.”
MBPCC also has a long and established relationship with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, sister hospital to St. Elizabeth. Since 1992, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center (OLOLRMC) and Mary Bird Perkins have been jointly accredited for its comprehensive cancer program by the American College of Surgeons. The Cancer Program of Our Lady of the Lake and Mary Bird Perkins was recently named as one of 14 cancer programs in the country selected by the National Cancer Institute to participate in its new and innovative National Cancer Institute Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) pilot.
For more information about St. Elizabeth Hospital and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, please visit www.steh.com or www.marybird.org.
About St. Elizabeth Hospital
Sponsorship by the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (FMOLHS) has provided the means to expand and upgrade St. Elizabeth Hospital to meet the needs of the growing area it serves. A 95-bed community hospital with 400+ team members and 100 physicians on staff, St. Elizabeth is one of four FMOLHS hospitals, including Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, St. Francis Medical Center in Monroe and Our Lady of Lourdes in Lafayette.
About Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center and its C.A.R.E. Network
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center has been fighting cancer for over 35 years. It is the only independent, nonprofit cancer treatment, education and research facility in Louisiana providing state-of-the-art
radiation therapy to all community residents regardless of ability to pay. The Center has locations in Baton Rouge, Covington and Hammond.
The mission of the C.A.R.E. Network (Cancer Support Services, Awareness and Education, Research and Early Detection) is to lessen the burden of cancer in the community. Established in 2002, it is funded by gifts from the community and provides hundreds of programs and services, including free cancer screenings, to thousands of people every year. The research and academic medical physics partnership with MBPCC and Louisiana State University is also funded in part by the C.A.R.E. Network.