Mayo Clinic/Nemours Children’s Clinic/Wolfson Children’s Hospital Blood and Marrow Transplant Program Earns National Accreditation Renewal

Jacksonville, Florida
Friday, December 14, 2007 @ 09:18 AM EST
by: Odette Struys

The Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) has awarded a three-year accreditation renewal to the Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program of Mayo Clinic, Nemours Children's Clinic and Wolfson Children's Hospital. The foundation awarded the accreditation renewal after thorough site visits at all collection, transplantation and laboratory facilities at the three locations.

"Maintaining our FACT accreditation continues to be an important achievement for the transplant program," says program director, pediatric hematologist/oncologist Michael Joyce, M.D., Ph.D., with Nemours Children's Clinic. "The physicians, hematology/oncology nursing, allied health and laboratory staff at Mayo, Nemours and Wolfson all worked extremely hard to achieve this goal."

The program was created just over six years ago to allow for greater collaboration in physician and staff expertise, research and clinical protocols. Many patient referrals to the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program come from physicians at Nemours Children's Clinics in Jacksonville, Orlando and Pensacola as well as from across the region. Since it was established, the combined program has transplanted patients with a variety of illnesses including childhood leukemia, Ewing's sarcoma, neuroblastoma, multiple myeloma, lymphoma and amyloidosis. Stem cell sources include the patient, HLA-matched family members, unrelated adult marrow donors or unrelated umbilical cord blood donor units.

The program shares a single cryopreservation laboratory (where hematopoietic stem cells are frozen and processed) at Mayo's St. Luke's Hospital. St. Luke's maintains the program's adult blood and marrow transplant unit, and Wolfson Children's Hospital maintains its Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Unit. The program shares information systems, network and other clinical and administrative staff. Those portions of the program currently based at St. Luke's Hospital will be relocated to the new Mayo Clinic hospital in Jacksonville when it opens in April 2008.

"FACT accreditation is a recognition of the high standards and quality of the program and is a source of confidence to our patients. More and more, insurance companies are only paying for transplants through programs accredited by FACT. So our accreditation renewal is welcome news for patients who might otherwise have to leave home or travel a greater distance for a transplant," said Vivek Roy, M.D. medical director of adult blood and bone marrow transplant program, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville.

"The success of the program, both academically and clinically, is attributable to a group of outstanding physicians and staff who continue to do what is in the best interest of their patients and the community-at-large," says Jerry Bridgham, M.D., chief medical officer of Wolfson Children's Hospital.

Current medical directors for the program include Michael Joyce, M.D., Ph.D. pediatric blood and marrow transplant director and overall program director, Nemours Children's Clinic; Vivek Roy, M.D., medical director of adult blood and bone marrow transplant program, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville; Abba Zubair, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of the cryopreservation laboratory, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville; and Jeffrey Goldstein, M.D., medical director of the pediatric apheresis program, Wolfson Children's Hospital. Mayo Clinic hematologist Lawrence Solberg, M.D., Ph.D., was the merged program's first director.

About FACT

Founded in 1996, FACT establishes standards for high quality medical and laboratory practice in cellular therapies. It is a nonprofit corporation co-founded by the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) for the purposes of voluntary inspection and accreditation in the field of cellular therapy. FACT's major objective is to promote high quality patient care and laboratory performance in the belief that a valid accreditation must assess both clinical and laboratory aspects.

About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a multispecialty medical clinic located in Jacksonville, Fla, one of three Mayo campuses around the country. Other campuses are in Minnesota and Arizona. In 2006, the Jacksonville staff included approximately 4,100 allied health personnel and 354 physicians and scientists working in more than 50 specialties to provide diagnosis, treatment and surgery. More than 91,000 patients were diagnosed and treated at the Jacksonville facility in 2006. Patients requiring hospitalization are admitted to nearby St. Luke's Hospital, a 289-bed Mayo facility. Visit www.mayoclinic.org/news/ for news from Mayo Clinic.

About Wolfson Children's Hospital and Baptist Health

Wolfson Children's Hospital, a part of Baptist Health, is one of the nation's top children's hospitals. Founded in 1955, Wolfson is a 180-bed regional referral hospital serving children and is the only children's hospital in Northeast Florida serving this region, Southeast Georgia and beyond. Baptist Health is a faith-based, mission-driven system comprised of Baptist Medical Center Downtown, Baptist Medical Center Beaches, Baptist Medical Center Nassau, Baptist Medical Center South and Wolfson Children's Hospital. Baptist Health also includes cardiology and cardiovascular surgery services, a comprehensive cancer center, orthopedic institute, women's resource center, a full range of psychology and psychiatry services, neurosciences, outpatient facilities and a network of primary care physicians' offices throughout Northeast Florida. Additional information about Baptist and Wolfson can be found at www.e-baptisthealth.com and about Wolfson at www.wchjax.com.

modified: Friday, December 21, 2007 @ 02:33 PM EST
created: Friday, December 21, 2007 @ 09:20 AM EST

About Nemours

Nemours, one of the nation’s largest pediatric health systems, is dedicated to achieving higher standards in children’s health. Nemours offers an integrated spectrum of clinical treatment coupled with research, advocacy, and educational health and prevention services extending to all families in the communities it serves. Starting with Alfred I. duPont’s bequest over seventy years ago, Nemours has grown into a multi-dimensional organization offering personalized clinical and preventive care focused on children.

Nemours owns and operates the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware and major children’s specialty clinics in Delaware (Wilmington), Florida (Jacksonville, Orlando and Pensacola), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Bryn Mawr) and New Jersey (Atlantic City and Voorhees). Having recently received preliminary approval from the State of Florida, Nemours will establish a new full-service children’s hospital as part of an integrated pediatric health campus in Orlando. KidsHealth.org, the world’s most visited pediatric health care Web site for parents, kids and teens, is a project of Nemours.

Nemours employs over 4,400 individuals, including 430 pediatric physicians, specialists and surgeons who cared for approximately a quarter of a million children in 2007. The organization’s goal is to align with parents, physicians, community leaders, children’s advocates and elected officials to ensure optimal wellness for every child. Additional information about Nemours can be found at www.nemours.org.