University Hospital Partners with Rutgers Cancer Institute

Former President and CEO of University Hospital, John Kastanis, shares the importance of expanding cancer-related services in Newark/Essex County, and discusses the significance of the hospital’s new partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

12/10/16 #2599

Excerpt:

"Hi I'm Steve Adubato. It is my honor and pleasure, for the first time, it's my honor to interview John Kastanis, who is the president and chief executive officer of University Hospital, based in Newark, New Jersey. John, do us a favor, the footprint of University is? Describe it. It's the part of the former UMDNJ, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which was dissolved by a legislative act over three years ago, and subsequent to that dissolution, the academic programs, most of them that were part of UMDNJ, were given to Rutgers University, and from that, we now have the Rutgers Health Programs, and the hospital itself, which is still on the same campus, is still a major component of the New Jersey Operating Budget, the state of New Jersey, and we are a standalone university hospital, strongly affiliated with Rutgers Health... Right. ...fulfilling the academic missions of both the hospital and Rutgers Health. So that's the new footprint of University Hospital. But you also serve people right in the heart of the city? Yes we do. And beyond. But we are a regional academic medical center, as most know, one of the stronger attributes of that campus is we're the only level one trauma center in north... Explain to folks what that means. Well, level one is the highest level, the highest skill of emergency services that are provided to those victims, mostly, you know, car crashes, and fatal shootings. It's the most severe type of emergent treatment that's available. That's where you would go? And that's where you would go. It's well known amongst all the municipalities, fire, police, all the emergency technicians that operate ambulances in the area. And we happen to run the 911 system in Newark. But that's where most want to go when there's a real serious traumatic injury. Of all of the... there are so many interesting developments happening in the healthcare world, and one of the most fascinating that we've read about recently, is the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey at University Hospital. Yes. Tell us what that is. Well, we have a relationship now with a rather well known cancer program. It's NCI designated as a comprehensive cancer center. So Rutgers, which has the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, for the most part, up until recently, based in New Brunswick, has now brought that cache, if you will, that branding, and all the expertise that comes with it, to the Newark campus at University Hospital. And I might add, we're very proud of all the cancer programs that we have had to date at University Hospital. In fact, some of the specialties, be it head and neck surgery, orthopedics..."