Bolstering St. Tammany Health System’s ongoing efforts to remove barriers to quality care on the Northshore, the American Cancer Society has awarded St. Tammany Hospital Foundation a $10,000 grant to address transportation needs of local cancer patients.
It is the second consecutive year the foundation has received the cancer society grant, which will provide gas cards, rideshare rides and other transportation assistance to patients in need who are receiving treatment at St. Tammany Cancer Center, a campus of Ochsner Medical Center.
“We serve patients from throughout southeast Louisiana and Mississippi, and transportation issues for patients has become one of our most emergent needs,” St. Tammany Hospital Foundation Major Gift Specialist Jennifer Garrard said. “Last year, we were able to meet the transportation needs of 143 patients, whether through rideshare services or gas cards. With help from this latest American Cancer Society grant, and with the numbers of patients being seen at the cancer center increasing, we have every reason to expect that number to go up.”
The cancer center, which opened in June 2021 near the intersection of Interstate 12 and Louisiana 21 in Covington, was designed to simplify cancer treatment by locating most cancer services under one roof. For many, however, traveling to and from their treatments – sometimes multiple times a week – still poses an economic burden. Others are too sick to drive themselves.
In a study by PubMed.gov, many patients simply forgo needed treatment due to transportation issues.
To combat that trend, the cancer center – with help from grants and private donations to St. Tammany Hospital Foundation – distributed more than 500 gas cards to patients living greater than 50 miles away round trip in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, the process was refined to meet the increased need of patients traveling from 25 to 49 miles away. Patients traveling 25 miles or more twice a week to the cancer center for treatment, lab or physician treatments that do not occur on the same day will qualify for transportation assistance.
“I had a patient from Tangipahoa Parish who we just started working with, and he’s got to come in twice a week for treatments,” cancer center Social Worker Lisa Hidalgo said. “And he literally told me sometimes he has to choose between whether he’s going to eat or come in and get his lab work for his cancer treatment. I was so grateful to say, ‘You know, let me tell you about the services we provide.’”
Another cancer center social worker, Jane Neel, added: “In a nutshell, without this program, there are many patients who just wouldn’t have a ride to get their chemo treatments.”
And that, according to the cancer society’s Lexie Matherne, is exactly the sort of problem the ACS’s patient transportation program aims to alleviate.
“Disparities predominantly arise from inequities in work, wealth, income, education, housing and overall standard of living, as well as social barriers to high-quality cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment services,” Matherne said. “ACS collaborates with community health partners to reach individuals in areas with higher burdens of cancer with little to no access to transportation – because even the best treatment can’t work if a patient can’t get there.”