MBPCC and St. Elizabeth Hospital Celebrate Partnership
Photo available for download. Captions available at end of release.
(Baton Rouge) - On May 28, 2008, board members of Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBP) and St. Elizabeth Hospital gathered at MBP in Baton Rouge to celebrate their joint cancer care initiative for Ascension Parish and the surrounding areas. The two organizations have partnered to build a new outpatient cancer treatment facility in Gonzales, LA. Todd Stevens, president and CEO of Mary Bird Perkins; Sheldon Johnson, MD, Mary Bird Perkins; and Dee LeJeune, president and CEO of St. Elizabeth Hospital all spoke about the importance of this partnership for the Ascension community and surrounding parishes. They expressed excitement about the opportunity to work together to increase local and regional access to advanced cancer care, affording more people with the opportunity to receive quality care at home, in their own community. Members of Mary Bird Perkins’ medical physics and radiation oncology staff gave technology tours of the Center’s patient treatment areas, including the TomoTherapy and BrainLab suites and state-of-the-art treatment planning area.
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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 CARE Network
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center has been fighting cancer for over 35 years. It is the only 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 CARE 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 CARE Network.
Photo 1 Caption
Pictured (l to r): Past MBP board member Susan Lipsey; MBP Foundation board member Sancy McCool; Judy Waguespack; Hickley Waguespack, chairman, Board of Directors, St. Elizabeth Hospital.