Pilot Site Profile
St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, California
St. Joseph Hospital Cancer Center
1100 West Stewart Drive
Orange, CA 92863-5600
Web sites:
Hospital: www.sjo.org
Cancer Center: www.sjo.org/Clinical_Services/Cancer_Institute/New_Cancer_Center.aspx
Larry Ainsworth, President and CEO, St. Joseph Hospital
James Padova, MD, Cancer Program Medical Director
Background
St. Joseph Hospital is a 412-bed medical center located in the city of Orange, California. It is one of 14 hospitals in the St. Joseph Health System, with facilities located throughout California and Texas. Located in a dense urban area, St. Joseph Hospital serves an ethnically diverse population, including large Hispanic and Asian communities. St. Joseph provides the highest number of emergency room visits of any hospital in the region. The St. Joseph Hospital Cancer Center, established in 1988, is the only center in Orange County to provide comprehensive cancer care, including a full range of diagnostic services, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, clinical trials, and stem cell transplants. Its new Cancer Center facility is due for completion in 2008. The hospital currently treats more than 1,300 new cancer patients each year.
Patient Service Area
St. Joseph’s primary market area is 54 percent majority Hispanic and 17 percent Asian (predominantly Vietnamese). One quarter of the population is White, a rate that is declining, and 3 percent are other ethnicities. Hispanics comprise over half the uninsured population and are more likely to develop viral-induced cancers such as cervical cancer. Among Asians in the region, lung cancer is the most common cancer, occurring at a rate of 18 percent higher than in Whites. Cervical cancer is five times higher in Vietnamese women in the area compared with other ethnicities. Both Hispanics and Asians show lower rates of screening for breast, colorectal, and cervical cancers than other groups.
Access and Outreach Initiatives
St. Joseph operates five community clinics – either fixed sites or mobile clinics – that serve uninsured residents in the community. The hospital operates an active staff training program in cultural awareness and maintains interpreter service in five languages: Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian, and Farsi. Benefiting from its location in Southern California, St. Joseph has partnerships with City of Hope, the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at San Francisco, and others for shared research, referrals, second opinions, and physician education and interchange.
