BEAUMONT, Texas—Texas Oncology, one of the largest community-based oncology practices in the U.S., marked on October 13 the opening of its new 32,000-square-foot cancer care center, located on the CHRISTUS Southeast Texas St. Elizabeth campus. The new, larger center was built to enable Texas Oncology to provide an enhanced patient experience while meeting the growing need for cancer care in Beaumont and throughout Southeast Texas. The center provides a wide range of services, including medical oncology, radiation oncology, gynecologic oncology, chemotherapy, genetic counseling, and lab services, as well as clinical trials. Radiation services will be provided in collaboration with CHRISTUS Health.

“Texas Oncology’s pioneering approach to community-based cancer care brought high-quality care to Beaumont more than 30 years ago. Our new center delivers on our continuing promise to be the cancer care provider of choice, with local care that is less disruptive to patients’ overall lives,” said Scott A. McKenney, M.D., FACP, medical director and medical oncologist and hematologist at Texas Oncology–Beaumont.

The new cancer center optimizes space for better patient care and is a major expansion for Texas Oncology–Beaumont, doubling the number of infusion chairs available for patients. The center also features the newest generation Varian TrueBeam® linear accelerator for radiation treatment and radioisotope therapy. An on-site medically integrated pharmacy, fully accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Healthcare, provides convenient, customized service in filling prescriptions and assisting patients with managing medications, such as immunotherapy.

“Our patients in Beaumont will benefit from the advantages that our new, modern facility offers, with a continuing opportunity to access innovative cancer treatment, administered by a compassionate team of oncology experts,” said Steven Paulson, M.D., president and chairman of the board for Texas Oncology. “Investing in our facilities demonstrates our commitment to always working to improve the quality of care we provide in the communities we serve across Texas.”

President and chief executive officer of CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System, Paul Trevino, said, “Having access to exceptional cancer care close to home is vital for our residents. Through our collaboration with Texas Oncology, CHRISTUS Southeast Texas Health System will continue to ensure high-quality and compassionate cancer expertise and treatment is available for our residents who need it most.”

The new cancer center, located at 3010 Harrison Avenue, was developed by Cottonwood Development, and McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. served as the general contractor.

The post Texas Oncology Debuts New Cancer Center in Beaumont appeared first on HCO News.

TYLER, Texas—McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has hit an important milestone in the construction of the Northeast Texas Cancer and Research Institute in Tyler. McCarthy, the general contractor on the project, and its trade partners celebrated “topping out” in February. A Cottonwood Development project, the 85,000-square-foot research facility is located on the CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Tyler campus and will provide outpatient care to surrounding communities. McCarthy broke ground on the project in May 2021 and is expected to complete construction in September of this year.

The Northeast Texas Cancer and Research Institute will consist of specialized areas for Texas Oncology, Tyler’s largest oncology provider, including 30,000 square feet of clinic space for medical, radiation and gynecologic oncology services, and nearly 3,000 square feet dedicated to research. These areas will also contain three linear accelerators for radiation therapy, 52 chemotherapy infusion stations – including six allotted to research – and four private rooms as well as pharmacy and lab services and a patient exercise area.

Within the Institute, CHRISTUS Health will have a 7,500-square-foot advanced imaging center with 3T MRI, PET/CT, ultrasound, nuclear medicine and more. An additional 10,000 square feet of clinic space will be used to support the surgical oncology programs of Louise Herrington Cancer Center, an inpatient facility located within CHRISTUS Mother Frances Hospital – Tyler, providing advanced, inpatient care for complex cancer patients. The project includes a 620-car parking garage.

“We’re actively involving the design team and a physicist in our MEP coordination efforts,” said Tim Campbell, senior project manager for McCarthy. “The linear accelerators and imaging equipment have all required MEP infrastructure coordinated with the requirements of the shielding systems and owner furnished imaging systems. This has been a uniquely challenging project, and we’re excited to celebrate this milestone as we move towards completion.”

McCarthy self-performed earthwork for the Cancer Center and installed all underground MEP components for the tenant spaces ahead of schedule. This allowed McCarthy, which is also self-performing concrete for the Cancer Center as well as the Linear Accelerator Vaults, to pour the slabs-on-grade on schedule without having to go back to remove concrete for underground infrastructure. McCarthy had two mass concrete placements in August, totaling over 2,200 CY of concrete for the Linear Accelerator vaults. These are concrete vaults with 6-foot-thick walls and a 6-foot-thick lid, constructed of high-density concrete. Adhering to mass concrete principles, this required the use of liquid nitrogen in the concrete mix. These vault walls were poured monolithically in a continuous pour in order not to have any joints for radiation to leak through. Challenged with soaring Texas summer temperatures, McCarthy replaced all the water in the concrete mixers with ice to bring the temperature of the concrete down below 75 degrees at point of placement.

In addition to the Northeast Texas Cancer and Research Institute, some of McCarthy’s health care projects include the recently-completed Parkland Moody Center for Breast Health in Dallas, CHRISTUS Spohn in Corpus Christi, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Alkek Hospital Expansion in Houston, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center The Pavilion expansion in Houston, the Children’s Health Plano Campus, Specialty Center II, and the Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center Replacement at Fort Hood, Texas by Balfour Beatty | McCarthy joint venture.

The post New Cancer Research Facility Reaches Topping Out Point in Texas appeared first on HCO News.

Authors from the Perelman School of Medicine, the Wharton School and the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE), which are all part of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, have published a study that is being published in the current issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The issue is a special look at the research being done about innovative health care incentives.

“Prescribing brand-name medications that have a generic equivalent is a prime example of unnecessary health care spending because in most cases, generic medications are less expensive, similar in quality and may actually lead to better outcomes than brand names because of higher rates of patient adherence to generics,” said Mitesh S. Patel, MD, MBA, MS, assistant professor of medicine and health care management at Penn and lead study author, in a statement. “The results of this study demonstrate that leveraging default options can be a very effective way to change behavior.”
The study included four ambulatory clinics (two internal medicine and two family medicine) in the University of Pennsylvania Health System between June 2011 and September 2012. Researchers evaluated the difference in prescribing behavior for three commonly prescribed classes of medications — beta-blockers, statins and proton-pump inhibitors — between family medicine and internal medicine physicians.
The study analyzed almost 9,000 prescriptions in the pre-intervention period, the time when a person’s specific health problem is not known, and a total of 12,443 prescriptions during the intervention period, a time when the prescription would be used to improve a particular health problem. During the intervention phase of the study, the family medicine physicians continued to be shown both brand name and generic medication options within the EHR medication prescriber portal, but internal medicine physicians were shown a different display of only the generic medication options, with the ability to opt out. When compared to family medicine physicians that did not receive the intervention, internal medicine physicians had a significant increase in generic prescribing rates.
“Not only was changing the default options within the EHR medication prescriber effective at increasing generic medication prescribing, this simple intervention was cost-free and required no additional effort on the part of the physician,” Patel said in a statement. “The lessons from this study can be applied to other clinical decision efforts to reduce unnecessary health care spending and improve value for patients.”
A 2013 report from the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, which wasn’t part of the authors’ report, showed that over a 10-year period (2003 to 2012), generic drug use has generated more than $1.2 trillion in savings to the health care system.

The post Prescription Choices in EHRs Impact Care Costs appeared first on HCO News.