COVINGTON, La. and HOUSTON, Texas – Ochsner Health and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced a partnership to create Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center in southeastern Louisiana. The fully integrated cancer program will include St. Tammany Cancer Center — A Campus of Ochsner Medical Center. Cancer patients in the region now have access to cancer treatments that are among the most advanced in the nation.
Through this collaboration, Ochsner is the first and only provider in Louisiana with a fully integrated cancer program based on MD Anderson’s standards and treatment plans.
“As the state’s leader in cancer care, we’re proud to partner with one of the global leaders in cancer care to provide a full continuum of services close to home for our patients,” said Mike Hulefeld, president and COO, Ochsner Health. “Beyond MD Anderson’s accolades and top national rankings, its clinicians and researchers advance innovative therapies through clinical trials several years before they become standard practice. Now, our patients will benefit from this expanded breadth of experience and therapies in Louisiana.”
Ochsner is one of only seven MD Anderson partners in the country and the only one in Louisiana. It joins a collaborative network of hospitals and health care systems dedicated to advancing MD Anderson’s mission to improving the quality and accessibility of cancer care and research. As such, Ochsner MD Anderson patients in southeastern Louisiana receive care based on the same protocols and practice standards provided at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas, and benefit from integration with its clinicians and researchers. Ochsner MD Anderson experts adhere to the philosophy, process, and guidelines of MD Anderson’s clinical leadership, and they provide a full range of multidisciplinary care options, including medical oncology, surgery, and radiation.
"We are pleased to welcome Ochsner Health as our newest partner, and we applaud their team’s commitment to excellence, innovation, and patient-centered care, which aligns with our own mission to end cancer,” said Peter WT Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson. “By working together, we are expanding our reach and impact, ensuring even more patients have access to high-quality cancer care and advanced treatments through clinical trials. We are proud to have Ochsner MD Anderson join us in Making Cancer History®.”
The first phase of the Ochsner MD Anderson partnership includes a location in Covington at St. Tammany Cancer Center - A Campus of Ochsner Medical Center. Ochsner Health and St. Tammany Health System partnered in 2014 to grow services and enhance access to care for area residents. In 2021, the health systems jointly opened a new $50 million facility dedicated to comprehensive cancer care, which is now home to an Ochsner MD Anderson location. The remaining six sites are in the New Orleans area and Baton Rouge.
“This collaboration is a notable milestone in our partnership with Ochsner that will only strengthen and deepen our integrated, holistic approach to providing cancer care. We are excited to now be able to offer our community expanded access to leading-edge clinical trials coupled with a focus on sub-specialized, multidisciplinary cancer care pioneered at MD Anderson,” said Joan Coffman, CEO, St. Tammany Health System (STHS). “I want to thank the clinical teams at both at the St. Tammany Cancer Center and St. Tammany Health System including the Women’s Pavilion for working tirelessly to meet the standards needed to achieve this prestigious designation. It was truly a collaborative effort among the St. Tammany Health System, Ochsner Health and community physicians and support teams over the past few years to meet the expectations required to earn the honor of this partnership with MD Anderson. The results of these efforts have elevated cancer care for our community — close to home, here in Covington.”
Other Ochsner MD Anderson locations are:
Ochsner and MD Anderson will work together to certify additional sites in the future. Cancer patients throughout the entire Ochsner system will continue to receive high-quality clinical care and benefit from the largest clinical trials network in Louisiana and Mississippi.
“We are thrilled to have Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Covington,” said Suma Satti, MD, vice chair of hematology/oncology, St. Tammany Cancer Center. “Our patients can be confident that they will receive an enhanced level of comprehensive cancer care through this partnership, including innovative therapies not found anywhere else in our region. Each member of our select team of cancer physicians has been certified by MD Anderson to clinically practice as part of Ochsner MD Anderson and appointed physicians will become adjunct members of MD Anderson faculty.”
With a holistic, patient-centric approach, Ochsner MD Anderson’s expert team provides comprehensive care to patients. A multidisciplinary team of doctors, clinicians and support specialists offers services to treat the entire person. Support professionals include nutritionists, nurse navigators, social workers, physical therapists, acupuncturists, and others. Ochsner MD Anderson is dedicated to improving the health of our communities and committed to the prevention and early detection of cancer. Ochsner
MD Anderson offers groundbreaking research and innovative therapies, including access to select clinical trials available to eligible patients as the only Phase I clinical trial program in Louisiana.
For more than 80 years, Ochsner has been dedicated to cancer research and new cancer therapy development, bringing innovations to treatment with more clinical trials than anywhere else in Louisiana. It is accredited by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American College of Radiology, the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (Bone Marrow Transplant) and the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers. Cancer care at Ochsner is recognized by U.S. News & World Report, ranking as high performing in uterine, prostate, lung, and colon cancer surgeries. Ochsner’s ear, nose and throat specialty is also ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top 50 program in the country, which includes head and neck surgical oncology. The Ochsner Cancer Institute treats more than 40,000 patients each year and has cared for patients from all 50 states and 28 countries. Each patient’s care team can include as many as 20 multidisciplinary cancer specialists working together to provide high-quality treatment. In 2022, more than 300,000 preventive cancer screenings were performed at Ochsner facilities across its system.
MD Anderson is one of the world’s largest and most respected cancer centers devoted exclusively to cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention. MD Anderson has been working to eliminate cancer for more than 80 years and has been named one of the top two hospitals in cancer care every year since U.S. News & World Report began its annual “America’s Best Hospital Rankings” in 1990. Based in Houston, MD Anderson conducts one of the world’s largest clinical trials programs, offering more than 1,600 clinical trials covering prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship.
To learn more about Ochsner MD Anderson Cancer Center, please visit www.ochsner.org/cancerservices.
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About Ochsner Health
Ochsner Health is an integrated health care system with a mission to Serve, Heal, Lead, Educate and Innovate. Celebrating more than 80 years of service, it leads nationally in cancer care, cardiology, neurosciences, liver and kidney transplants and pediatrics, among other areas. Ochsner is consistently named both the top hospital and top children’s hospital in Louisiana by U.S. News & World Report. The not-for-profit organization is inspiring healthier lives and stronger communities through its Healthy State by 2030 initiative, a bold and collaborative plan to realize a healthier Louisiana. Its focus is on preventing diseases and providing patient-centered care that is accessible, affordable, convenient and effective. Ochsner Health pioneers new treatments, deploys emerging technologies and performs groundbreaking research, including 4,000 patients enrolled in 685 clinical studies in 2022. It has more than 37,000 employees and over 4,700 employed and affiliated physicians in over 90 medical specialties and subspecialties. It operates 46 hospitals and more than 370 health and urgent care centers across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Gulf South; and its cutting-edge Connected Health digital medicine program is caring for patients beyond its walls. In 2022, Ochsner Health treated more than 1.4 million people from every state and 62 countries. As Louisiana’s top health care educator of physicians, Ochsner Health and its partners educate thousands of health care professionals annually. To learn more, visit https://www.ochsner.org/.
About St. Tammany Health System
St. Tammany Health System is the heartbeat of its community, caring for patients and families with excellence, compassion and teamwork; it will strengthen the health of its community with compassion, innovation and partnership. St. Tammany Health System is recognized for quality, safety and patient experience by Healthgrades, Hospital Compare, Leapfrog, Quantros/CareChex, Women’s Choice and US News & World Report. St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 1 is an independent service district delivering world-class health care close to home to best serve patients and families in west St. Tammany and surrounding areas. Self-supporting, not-for-profit STHS receives no tax funding. StTammany.health
St. Tammany Health System and Ochsner Health work together in partnership to improve our community’s health and quality of life, today and for the future. Together, we represent the most complete system of care, aligning west St. Tammany’s top two independent health leaders behind the common goals of improving access, expanding specialty care and making care affordable.
About MD Anderson
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world's most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. The institution’s sole mission is to end cancer for patients and their families around the world. MD Anderson is one of only 53 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). MD Anderson is No. 1 for cancer in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” rankings and has been named one of the nation’s top two hospitals for cancer since the rankings began in 1990. MD Anderson receives a cancer center support grant from the NCI of the National Institutes of Health (P30 CA016672).