Placerville hospital expands patient access to cancer trials, treatment with UCD Health pact
Placerville’s Marshall Medical Center announced Wednesday that it is entering into an affiliation with UC Davis Health to allow its patients access to the nationally recognized cancer treatment that the academic health system provides.
“It’s exciting to expand and elevate cancer services in a way that will also preserve our standing as a nonprofit, independent hospital,” said Siri Nelson, Marshall’s chief executive officer. “Under the agreement, our cancer center will stay under the Marshall umbrella, with the hospital retaining ownership, licensure, and clinical oversight for patient care.”
The Marshall leadership team wanted to attract more patients to the hospital’s cancer center in Cameron Park, which has 12 infusion chairs, Nelson said, and this pact will allow Marshall’s three oncologists to confer directly with oncologists in the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center to provide their patients with the latest diagnostic and treatment options.
In 2021, Nelson said, about 6% of the patients Marshall Medical served were treated for cancer.
“There are some patients who drive past us to the big cities who think that they can get better care,” Nelson said, “so one of the things we talked about was a cancer center affiliation with a large tertiary center that would have access to things like clinical trials, which as an independent center we don’t have access to.”
The UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center checked a lot of boxes, she said, because they’re a tertiary center, they’re a teaching hospital, and they are a comprehensive cancer center.
The designation of “comprehensive” cancer center, a designation conferred by the National Cancer Institute, means that UCD not only studies the patterns, causes, and control of cancer in patient groups at its own facility but also participates in such studies across multiple cancer centers. The NIH, which recently renewed UCD’s comprehensive designation, also financially supports research at the 51 cancer centers nationwide that have earned this recognition.
Marshall is one of several health care facilities that have accessed the UCD oncological team through the UC Davis Cancer Care Network. Others include including Gene Upshaw Memorial Tahoe Forest Cancer Center in Truckee, Adventist Health and Rideout in Marysville, Mercy Medical Center in Merced, and Barton Health in Lake Tahoe.
Affiliated oncologists gain access to continuing medical education opportunities at UCD Health, and medical residents and fellows at the academic teaching hospital also can do clinical rotations along with their instructors at Marshall’s Cancer Center.
“We are pleased to welcome Marshall Medical Center into the UC Davis Health Cancer Care Network,” said David Lubarsky, the CEO at Sacramento-based UCD Health. “Our goal is to improve cancer care in community hospitals so that patients can access top-notch cancer care. This alliance brings El Dorado County residents the latest discoveries in cancer care without having to leave the convenience of their local hospital.”
The NIH’s National Cancer Institute requires comprehensive cancer centers to serve not only the patients that managed to come their campuses, Lubarsky said, but also to really elevate the level of cancer care across an entire region. Affiliations like this one with Marshall allows UCD Health to achieve that mission, he said.
Marshall’s patients should be able to get advanced testing for the type of tumor they may have, no matter where they live in proximity to UCD, so that they can get the right chemotherapy, Lubarsky said, and they should have access to the latest drugs, the latest clinical trials and the same life-saving clinical research as a patient at the UCD Medical Center.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 5:02 PM.
