“Cooper University Hospital is extremely proud of the work our Trauma Center provides each and everyday,” said John P. Sheridan, Jr., President and CEO at Cooper University Hospital. “This achievement is further recognition of our Trauma staff’s dedication to providing optimal care for injured and seriously ill patients from across South Jersey.”

Established by the American College of Surgeons in 1987, the COT’s Consultation/Verification Program for Hospitals promotes the development of trauma centers in which participants provide not only the hospital resources necessary for trauma care, but also the entire spectrum of care to address the needs of all injured patients. This spectrum encompasses the pre-hospital phase through the rehabilitation process.

Verified trauma centers must meet the essential criteria that ensure trauma care capability and institutional performance, as outlined by the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma in its current Resources for Optimal Care of the Injured Patient manual.

“Our trauma center wouldn’t be where it is today, or have received the success it has, if it wasn’t for the expertise and hard work of our entire staff, including physicians, technicians, nurses and surgeons,” said Steven E. Ross, MD, FACS, FCCM, Head, Division of Trauma and Director, Level I Trauma Center and Trauma Surgical Intensive Care Unit. “Treating and saving the lives of these critically ill or injured patients takes coordination and skill. We have the best of the best here at Cooper.”

The ACS Committee on Trauma’s verification program does not designate trauma centers. Rather, the program provides confirmation that a trauma center has demonstrated its commitment to providing the highest quality trauma care for all injured patients. The actual establishment and the designation of trauma centers is the function of local, regional, or state health care systems agencies, such as the local emergency medical services (EMS) authority.

Cooper’s administrators and Board leadership participated in the Groundbreaking Event, along with business, community and elected officials from throughout New Jersey, including N.J. Governor Chris Christie, NJ Senator Stephen Sweeney, and Camden City Mayor Dana Redd.  The event was held at the site of the new building, on the corner of Martin Luther King Boulevard and Haddon Avenue.  It is the newest addition to the Cooper Health Sciences campus in Camden, joining the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, which will open this July.

“Cooper Health’s dedication, for 125 years now, bridges excellence in medicine with community engagement,” said Governor Chris Christie. “This groundbreaking is the latest example of the steps New Jersey is taking to become a national leader in providing comprehensive healthcare and cancer treatment services, not only for the citizens of Camden and New Jersey, but for individuals from across the region and the nation.”

“Today marks yet another milestone in the expansion of the Health Sciences Campus in Camden,” noted George E. Norcross, III, Chairman of Cooper’s Board of Trustees.  “Our commitment to Camden and our community continues to be our priority as we work to bring positive changes and improved healthcare services to our patients. The recent opening of the Robert’s Pavilion and the establishment of Cooper Medical School, as well as the significant improvements in and around the neighborhood, demonstrate that we believe – strongly — in the future of Camden.”

The new Cooper Cancer Institute will provide a full range of specialists and cancer care services with the benefit of patients having all their medical needs in one place, including:  radiology and radiation oncology, hematology/medical oncology, surgical oncology, urology and gynecologic oncology; chemotherapy infusion and laboratory space; and chemotherapy pharmacy.  Abundant examination, treatment and procedure space throughout the new building will improve patient flow and access, and conference room and academic spaces will foster the team-approach to cancer treatment for which Cooper Cancer Institute is already well-known.

Currently, specialists of the Cooper Cancer Institute treat patients in Camden and Voorhees. The new building in Camden will provide integrated treatments for Cooper cancer patients.

Cooper has a long history of providing care to cancer patients, dating back to 1887 when the hospital first opened its doors.  Today, the Cooper Cancer Institute is accredited by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer as an Academic Comprehensive Cancer Program and is the only cancer program in South Jersey to be included in the prestigious network of institutions that make up the Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ).  As a Major Clinical Research Affiliate of CINJ, Cooper provides patients with access to the latest clinical trials, therapies and technology available.

“Cancer has touched, in some way, nearly every person in South Jersey,” said John P. Sheridan, Jr., President and CEO at Cooper.  “It’s our goal, with this new building, to help improve our patients’ experience by providing a full complement of coordinated cancer care services, including diagnosis, counseling, treatment, follow-up care and supportive services, all in one convenient location.”

The new Cooper Cancer Institute will open in the fall of 2013.

Common Market, a local food hub, started delivering local foods to institutions in 2008. Cooper was one of the first clients for the fledgling company. Since that time we have purchased many local, delicious foods all year from local farmers.

Aside from the wonderful produce, cheese, turkey, chicken and other local goods, we are supporting the local economy and helping farmers keep up the tradition of farming.

Cooper University Hospital is the recipient of a $2.8 million, three-year Federal Innovation Grant presented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).  The Health Care Innovation Award was announced today by CMS. Cooper was selected out of over 3,000 applications from all over the country; only 26 awards were granted.

Cooper, serving the eight southern counties of the state of New Jersey, is receiving this award to better serve over 1,200 patients with complex medical needs who have relied on emergency rooms and hospital admissions for care.  The intervention will use care management and care transition teams to work with these patients to reduce avoidable emergency room visits, inpatient hospital admissions and hospital readmissions, and improve their access to primary health care.

This approach is expected to result in better health care outcomes and lower costs with estimated savings of approximately $6.1 million.  Over the three-year period, Cooper’s program will train an estimated 14 health care workers, while creating an estimated 14 new jobs.  These workers will include non-clinical staff and community health workers who will serve as part of multidisciplinary teams to support care coordination activities.

“We need to be on a clear and sustainable path towards better care in America with new approaches like this to manage chronic illness in our society,” states Jeffrey Brenner, MD, Director of the Institute for Urban Health at Cooper University Hospital and Executive Director of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers.  “Patients living in the City of Camden, who struggle with complex health conditions, will benefit from this new grant.  The funds, received and managed by Cooper, will enable the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers to expand it’s nationally recognized model of care coordination to reach more patients in Camden.

Dr. Brenner applied for the grant on behalf of the care coordination team at Cooper as part of the Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers (CCHP).  For the past eight years, CCHP has developed programs that work in conjunction with those on the front lines of healthcare delivery, reducing the amount of Emergency Department and inpatient stays for our patients.

The Coalition championed legislation signed by Governor Christie last year which creates a Medicaid Accountable Care Organization Demonstration Program.  The legislative ordinance will permit organizations like the Camden Coalition to receive a portion of the Medicaid savings generated by its projects and creates a sustainable business model once grant funds like these run out.

“This is a remarkable achievement for Cooper, the Coalition and for the region,” said John P. Sheridan, Jr., President and CEO at Cooper.  “Our healthcare environment is constantly evolving and we are working to better manage our patient’s needs.  We are becoming an example for the rest of the country about how collaborative care is cost effective and is truly beneficial to a patient’s well-being.”

The March was held on the campus of Virtua Hospital in Voorhees, and welcomed close to 500 participants from all over South Jersey.

“Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper was pleased to be a sponsor of the March for Babies,” said Chief of Pediatrics Michael Goodman, MD.  “We had a beautiful sunny day to walk, and a wonderful Cooper presence.  The best part was talking with former patients and their families whom we have helped.”

Check out photos of the day’s events!

Members of the Blue Knights Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club, New Jersey Chapter 1, present gifts to two pediatric patients at Children’s Regional Hospital; Diyana Jones, 7, from Camden, NJ and Zachary Macklin, 12, from Clayton, NJ.

Some of the items were distributed to patients on Sunday afternoon. The remaining donations will be given out as morale boosting rewards for children undergoing surgery. When patients leave Cooper, each receives a gift to help them remember a positive experience associated with their hospital stay.

The Blue Knights club was formed in 1974 in Brewer, Maine by nine law enforcement officers, and in thirteen years has grown to over 20,000 members in 635 chapters in 24 countries. The purpose of this corporation is to provide a fraternal and social motorcycle club for law enforcement personnel and associated professions to better the image of motorcyclists, and to help the less fortunate through a reliable charitable organization. Charities that help children, like patients at Cooper, are especially close to their hearts, and the Blue Knights are dedicated to raising money for organizations such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Toys for Tots, D.A.R.E., and Concerns of Police Survivors.

Sepsis kills 250,000 Americans annually yet there is no FDA approved treatment; three drugs recently removed from market or failed clinical studies

Cooper University Hospital is the flagship investigative center for EUPHRATES, a pivotal North American multicenter clinical study that is testing whether a combination therapeutic/diagnostic (theranostic) can improve the survival of patients who suffer from septic shock. The study, in the process of expanding from 15 to 30 sites in the Unites States and Canada, is the first to evaluate a theranostic for the diagnosis and treatment of septic shock and is further distinguished by applying principles of personalized medicine to identify and treat a specific segment of the patient population that is at highest risk of death.

The statistics associated with sepsis are sobering. In the United States alone, sepsis affects more than 750,000 patients and claims more than 250,000 lives, which is more than colorectal, pancreatic and prostate cancer combined. Severe sepsis and septic shock, which are the most life-threatening stages of sepsis, have a combined mortality rate of 30-35 percent. The Global Sepsis Alliance has declared sepsis “a medical emergency beyond national borders and likely the leading cause of death worldwide, claiming tens of millions of lives every year.”

“Sepsis leading to septic shock is a healthcare crisis of pandemic scale in North America and around the world, yet there is not a single FDA-approved therapy for the condition, creating an urgent need for new effective and affordable treatments,” said Dr. Phillip Dellinger, Director of Critical Care Medicine and the Cooper Medical/Surgical Intensive Care Unit and principal investigator of the study at Cooper University Hospital. Dr. Dellinger is also Professor of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. “Current management of septic shock patients follows Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines based on early antibiotics, goal-directed resuscitation of the cardiovascular system and support of failing organs as needed. Previous efforts to develop effective treatments for sepsis have failed and a contributing factor might be that they were applied to a heterogeneous patient population. We are hopeful that a more targeted approach using characteristics of personalized medicine, such as in the EUPHRATES trial design, will lead to the identification of a targeted a group of patients most likely to benefit.”

The grim outlook for treatments worsened in late 2011 when the only approved therapy – Xigris – was taken off the U.S. market due to efficacy and safety problems. Earlier that year, another drug failed to demonstrate efficacy in its Phase III trial for severe sepsis. In February 2012, a late stage clinical study was halted due to safety concerns.

Previous clinical research has demonstrated that elevated levels of endotoxin in the blood (a condition known as endotoxemia) can act as a potent trigger of the “sepsis cascade,” the physiological chain of events that can quickly lead to organ failure and death. It is estimated that 50 percent of patients with septic shock – approximately 125,000 – suffer from endotoxemia. The theranostic being tested in the EUPHRATES study is comprised of the Endotoxin Activity Assay (EAA^™), an FDA-cleared rapid diagnostic that measures endotoxin levels in the blood, and Toraymyxin, a therapeutic hemoperfusion device that removes endotoxin from the bloodstream. Although Toraymyxin is an investigational device in the U.S., it is approved in 18 countries and has safely treated more than 80,000 patients.

In 2009, a European Phase II multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trial was terminated early on the basis of positive interim results which demonstrated that Toraymyxin reduced 28-day mortality in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock in comparison to those patients in the conventional therapy group (32 percent treated with Toraymyxin vs. 53 percent treated with conventional therapy).

About the EUPHRATES study:

Name: EUPHRATES: Evaluating Use of Polymyxin B Hemoperfusion in a Randomized controlled trial of Adults Treated for Endotoxemia and Septic Shock.

Stage: Phase III

Design:  Randomized, double-blind, controlled comparing standard of care versus standard of care plus Toraymyxin, as directed by the EAA

Patient Population: Critically ill patients diagnosed with septic shock and elevated endotoxin levels as measured by the EAA

Targeted Enrollment: 360 patients

Number of locations: 30 centers in the U.S. and Canada (16 currently active)

From Left to Right: Tricia Merriam, Revenue Cycle Manager, Infusion, Cooper Cancer Institute and Meghan Vizzard, 12, Sixth Grade Student at Hartford School in Mt. Laurel.

When her nineteen-year-old cousin Katie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2011, Meghan Vizzard of Mount Laurel wanted to make her a gift that would provide some comfort to her once she began her treatment. It was a handmade fleece blanket that Katie used every day during her nine week course of chemotherapy.

“I’ve made blankets for other friends that have been sick, and I just hoped that in some way this would help her get through those long days of treatment,” said Meghan. “Katie liked it so much that she asked me to help her make a blanket for a friend that she met during her treatment.”

The two girls teamed up, and so began the idea of Project Cozies for Chemo. Since then, with the help of her friends, family and local community, Meghan has raised more than $1,200 to make blankets to donate for others going through the same kind of treatment as her cousin had. On Monday, April 9, 2012, Meghan visited the Cooper Cancer Institute in Voorhees to bring the donated blankets to patients.

Today, Katie is cancer free.

Journal of Vascular Surgery
March 2012

Published as the lead article in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, Joseph V. Lombardi MD, Chief of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, discusses the results of the STABLE trial for the minimally invasive treatment for Type B aortic dissection.  “Compared to other forms of therapy for Type B aortic dissection, this approach has the lowest documented morbidity and mortality,” says Dr. Lombardi, Global principal investigator of the STABLE trial.   Enrollment continues at Cooper for the STABLE trial, and is one of only 5 centers in the United States offering this groundbreaking therapy.

To read the complete article click HERE.

Joseph E. Parrillo, MD, Cooper University Hospital Chief of Medicine receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Critical Care Medicine from the SCCM President, Pamela A. Lipsett, MD.

Over 5,000 people were in attendance at the Houston Convention Center last month for the opening ceremony of the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s (SCCM) 41st Congress to see Joseph E. Parrillo, MD, Chief of the Department of Medicine at Cooper University Hospital, Director of the Cooper Heart Institute and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, receive the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The SCCM represents more than 15,000 professional members in more than 100 countries. The SCCM Lifetime Achievement Award was created to honor individuals who demonstrate meritorious contributions to the field of critical care through the advancement of medical science, medical education, and medical care. Dr. Parrillo was only the thirteenth recipient in the 40-year-history of the organization.

Among many career accomplishments, Dr. Parrillo received the highest civilian honor, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Award, for creating the first Critical Care Medicine Department during his tenure NIH. He is also a member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society of Clinical Investigation, two elite societies that elect members to recognize senior clinicians/scientists who have performed the finest clinical research.

He is a past president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and is presently editor-in-chief of Critical Care Medicine, the premier journal devoted to the discipline of critical care. He has authored more than 1000 publications and is editor of one of the standard textbooks in the field of critical care, Critical Care Medicine: Principles of Diagnosis and Management in the Adult.

In his acceptance speech, Dr. Parrillo acknowledged the contributions of many colleagues to both his career and to the field of critical care medicine. “I have gained so much knowledge and sophisticated decision-making skills from the people that I have worked with. Practicing critical care and seeing patients become better after serious illness, are part of this great profession. We are all very fortunate to be involved in healthcare where there is no doubt that we all make an enormous difference for our patients and our society.”