HJBR Jan/Feb 2022

CANCER WARS 16 JAN / FEB 2022 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   OLOL continued... department. We’re excited about it. Editor: I’m going to switch gears on you. I’d like to discuss the elephant in the room, if you will, and I have to say after losing some- one I love dearly recently to cancer, I was a bit surprised by some of the reaction in the Baton Rouge community to the recent split between OLOL and Mary Bird Perkins. It is my experience that competition amongwor- thy competitors in the healthcare field typi- cally raises the level of patient care and pro- vides more options for those providers and patients. What am I missing? O’Neal: Well, first of all, I’ll tell you, I’m sorry about your loss. I think competition is very healthy. I don’t see this as a competition. I see it as taking a different turn and having a different perspective on how to address next steps. But, I do believe that change is necessary, and this is a state that needs change. We are seeing change in our com- munity as it pertains cancer, and people should embrace that, because we built this phenomenal physician base. We offer great care. We have all the tools, but they are not put into place to allow every single patient — who needs advanced cancer care all the way up to palliative care and end of life research opportunities — we do not have a place for the people of Louisiana to come that offers everything. I think that’s a shame. As a person who’s lost many family members to cancer and had them leave the state and had them bring their wallets in their pocketbooks and their savings out of state to try to look for answers, I think that we just have not har- nessed the power of our medical commu- nity to do the best job for our patients, and this is the next step. This change is good. I agree with you. It’s time, and I don’t know why people aren’t embracing it, except that change is hard. We both know that. And, sometimes peo- ple just balk at it, but we’re excited about it. I think that it will improve care, not just for the Baton Rouge region, which is what’s been focused on in the newspaper, this will improve care for the entire State of Louisiana. Editor: So, there’s a difference in ideology and philosophy in cancer care between your two groups, and you’re speaking to that and say- ing, “We don’t have that now.”When did that split begin, and why? What does that look like moving forward for you? O’Neal: I’ve only been the chief medical offi- cer for two years, so I don’t know when the ideology truly became different, but it was apparent to me as I took on this role that our ideologies were always a little different. We come from a place that is compre- hensively focused. A hospital takes care of a patient from their car to care to car, right? They get out, you do all of their care, and you hope that when they get back in their car, they’re done. That means that whether it’s being an infectious disease doctor or a surgeon or your oncologist, we try to pack- age it all up, because we know that when a patient leaves, they’re less likely to come back, that’s it’s harder for them to come back and that we lose opportunity. That’s a hospital perspective. There is a different perspective out there, which is that “I’m just going to focus on one thing.” Who’s right? There’s always room in the middle. We have taken so many steps to make sure that that continuity of care, that seeing everybody, the full package, getting everything you need in one place is what we do for heart disease, for stroke and for can- cer. That’s where we came from, and that’s where we’ll keep going. I think that was always there. I think that upon a resigning of a big agreement, it just becomes more obvi- ous that there are different attitudes about it. We just don’t think that there’s anything independent about cancer care. You can’t be independent and offer full service can- cer care. You have to be comprehensive, so that’s the route we’re taking. Editor: The split, to the public, seemed sud- den and irrevocable. Would you please share with us what was actually happening behind the scenes and how long this disassociation was in the making? O’Neal: We were negotiating by resigning of our work together, our affiliation agree- ment. In many ways that negotiation was going very well, and I think that both par- ties wanted it to work. But, at the same time, there were things that we disagreed about. Obviously, we just touched on those. I don’t think that either of us thought, when we started on the work, that it wouldn’t work out. It just became apparent towards the end. Then, Mary Bird Perkins decided to split. They left the negotiation agreements; we did not. But when they left, we said, “OK.” And then we said, “You knowwhat, we are going to harness this and make a change for the better.” And we did. It’s been liberating. It’s been great to dream about what could be for the people of Louisiana, and that’s what we set out to do. We’re not looking back. Some- times you just have to seize the opportunity, and that’s what we’re going to do. Editor: When do you think the facilitywill be complete — the OLOL facility? O’Neal: Well, we have a facility — our Insti- tute is never going to leave. But, when will our free-standing cancer center, when will something that you can visualize all together, be ready? Somewhere around 18 months to two years is our hope. Editor: And it will be on the campus? O’Neal: Yes. Absolutely. That’s the only way you get comprehensive care — you should be able to get out of your car, and when you get back in your car, you’ve received all of your care. Editor: What will set your operations apart? If you were a patient or had a patient or loved onewith cancer, howwould you choose which group to get care from? O’Neal: What separates our operations will be a fragmentation of care on one side and a comprehensive care model on the other. You may have to go to multiple addresses,