Hoag Memorial, USC collaborate on cancer care

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, Calif., and Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California announced a partnership that joins a wave of agreements extending the reach of comprehensive cancer centers into community hospital settings.

Hoag and USC's collaboration will establish a cancer and oncology services program at the Hoag Family Cancer Institute, which treats more than 3,000 newly diagnosed cancer patients a year. The organizations say the alliance will improve cancer care in Orange County by giving Hoag patients access to resources, services and clinical trials available through USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the first eight National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the U.S.

The deal's announcement comes about six weeks after the Institute of Medicine released a report in which a committee of experts concluded that the cancer-care delivery system in the U.S. is in crisis. One of the report's recommendations for dealing with growing demand, a shrinking oncology workforce, rising costs and disease complexities was a shift to team-based models of care such as the one being pursued by Hoag and USC.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut also announced last month a similar alliance to provide local cancer care and research. This month, Duarte, Calif.-based cancer center City of Hope reached a tentative agreement to provide services in Providence Health & Services' network of hospitals, clinics and doctors offices in Southern California.

“The increasing complexities of cancer-care delivery as well as complete care of the cancer patient require a new multidisciplinary approach,” Dr. Burton Eisenberg, who was named executive medical director of the Orange County program, said in a news release. “The Hoag/USC aligned cancer programs will provide an innovative spectrum of cancer treatment. This includes better access to new cancer therapies, development of evidence-based standardized clinical pathways and informed cancer research choices that will be transforming in the years to come.”

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