Joliet cancer center, Provena pleased with new partnership

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Updated: February 14, 2012 10:15AM

JOLIET — The Joliet-based cancer center commonly known as JOHA began 2012 with a new hospital partnership and plans another development for 2013.

Patients visiting the Joliet Oncology-Hematology Associates facility on Jefferson Street noticed new signs this week labeling the facility a Provena Regional Cancer Center.

That JOHA facility and another in Morris has affiliated with Provena Health — Resurrection Health Care.

The affiliation does not change JOHA, said PJ Sidhu, administrator for the Joliet-based cancer group, which has six facilities in the Chicago region.

“JOHA is not sold. JOHA still has its own identity,” Sidhu said. “It’s a good partnership where we both benefit. More than that, I think the community benefits.”

Partnership

The Provena affiliation will provide the cancer center with more resources for both the medical and business side of the operation, Sidhu said. But JOHA ownership is not changed by the partnership. And, patients at the JOHA facilities will see the same doctors and employees, he said.

JOHA has some 80 employees at the Joliet facility. Clinical employees, representing about half of the staff, are becoming Provena employees, Sidhu said.

But, he said, “Everything is the same as if nothing happened. We don’t want patients to feel that they are inconvenienced by any of this.”

Provena spokeswoman Jan Ciccarelli said there should be more convenience for patients. Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center and the JOHA facility are only a few blocks away from each other.

“It will be more seamless for patients,” Ciccarelli said.

The affiliation actually is with Provena Mercy Medical Center, the network’s hospital in Aurora. But the affiliation applies to all Provena hospitals and patients, Ciccarelli said.

Moving with Silver Cross

Meanwhile, JOHA also has plans on the other side of town at its facility outside Silver Cross Hospital.

Silver Cross is moving next month to its new hospital nearly completed in New Lenox. JOHA plans to build a new facility near the new Silver Cross Hospital on land it is in the process of acquiring. JOHA will stay in its existing East Side location until the new facility opens, Sidhu said.

Sidhu noted that JOHA has operations near other hospitals. Its Bolingbrook facility is next to the Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital. It has another facility inside the Adventist GlenOaks Hospital in Glendale Heights. The sixth JOHA location is in Flossmoor.

The plans to follow Silver Cross to New Lenox come despite JOHA’s opposition in 2010 when the hospital proposed a new University of Chicago Cancer Center at Silver Cross Hospital.

JOHA representatives made a case that the new Silver Cross treatment center would oversaturate the market and harm existing providers. State regulators approved the new University of Chicago facility, which will be part of the Silver Cross campus.

JOHA started in Joliet in 1981.

Sidhu said the group has been a pioneer in cancer treatment in Joliet and other communities, providing treatments closer to home for patients living outside of Chicago and doing research typically seen at university hospitals.

The Provena affiliation should provide resources to develop more specialized cancer treatments, he said.