St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: organizational structure and mission

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Founded by entertainer Danny Thomas, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is celebrating its fiftieth year of operation; in that time the hospital has conducted important research and cured / saved the lives of numerous children with cancer and other diseases. This paper reviews the organization from a number of important perspectives.

Board of Directors and Governors

The chairman / president of St. Jude's Board of Directors is Camille Sarrouf, who is an attorney in Boston with the law practice, Sarrouf Law. The First Vice Chair is Richard "Rich" M. Unes, from Memphis, Tennessee. Second Vice Chair is Paul Ayoub and the Secretary of St. Jude's Fred R. Harris. As to the Board of Governors for St. Jude's, Robert Breit is the chairman and president and Terry Burman is the First Vice Chair. Martha Perine Beard is the Second Vice Chair for the Board of Governors and Fred P. Gattas, Jt., is the Secretary.

St. Jude Hospital has three Ex-Officios: Richard C. Shadysc, Jr., is CEO / ALSAC; William E. Evans, PharmD, is Director and CEO; and Helen B. Wood is Executive Administrator to the Board (www.stjude.org). There are other boards, including the Scientific Advisory Board (11 doctors as members) and the Cancer Center Advisory Board (with 9 doctors serving the research on cancer).

Mission Statement Continued: What are the values of St. Jude's Hospital?

Along with the Mission Statement and the vision of the hospital, the stated values of the hospital are an important component as well. Values at St. Jude's begin with the importance of ethical behavior -- which helps define "who we are" -- and helps to back up the Mission Statement while "…simultaneously strengthening" the reputation of the Hospital.

St. Jude values include: a) committing to patients that they will receive the "highest quality of medical and supportive care" -- and their families will receive all available information and support necessary to make "informed decisions" about their children; b) respect for the "ethnic, cultural, religious and lifestyle differences of patients" as well as their families, the contributors to St. Jude and "our colleagues"; c) a commitment do donors that money will be spent wisely; and d) a commitment to succeed; to achieve excellence; to be honest and accountable; to respect patients and employees; to develop trust and embrace diversity; and a commitment to social responsibility at a local, state, national and international level (www.stjude.org).

What kind of services does St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Provide?

First it should be noted that St. Jude's is the only facility of its kind that specializes in pediatric approaches to cancer -- and is funded by the National Cancer Institute. The Surgery Clinic at St. Jude's performs procedures (with parental approval, a signature on an approval consent form) on a number of kinds of cancerous tumors. The parent is told how long the surgery will last, what can be expected from the surgery ("size of cut, where it will be on your child's body, etc."), where the child will be cared for following the surgery, which is based on the kind of surgery that will be performed. Parents are also told what the day following the surgery will be like for the child.

The Surgery Clinic performs "…many types of surgeries" including "sub-clinic" surgeries ("Ortho, Limb, Sparing, and AVN -- Avascular Necrosis"); there is also the Eye Clinic which performs surgery as well.

SWOT Analysis

The Strengths of St. Jude's are many: a) cures are of course sought but moreover, clinical trials help in the discovery of treatments and preventative strategies; b) families do not have to go into debt to get services (they are free); c) the Hospital has 2.5 million square feet designated for research; d) new computer technologies are being employed in the Hospital; and e) the Hospital has pioneered in approaches to chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. The Weaknesses are very difficult to find; the fact that there is only one St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is disappointing but it can't technically be thought of as a weakness. The Opportunities provided for families with children who have cancer or other catastrophic disease is wonderful and unprecedented. Other opportunities include: new research toward a cure for cancer; and expanded research avenues including coordination with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium. There are no known threats to the St. Jude Research Children's Hospital.

Description of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

The Hospital is located in Memphis, Tennessee, and treats about 7,800 patients annually, according to the "Quick Facts About St. Jude" site. It launched in February, 1962, thanks to the vision and the fundraising ability of entertainer Danny Thomas. The Hospital has 78 inpatient beds and is the "…first institution established for the sole purpose of…" engaging in the clinical research vis-a-vis the treatment and the medical understanding of "catastrophic childhood diseases" -- mainly the treatment of cancer.

In 2010, researchers working at St. Jude's published more than 680 scholarly and scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals; that is more than any existing cancer research center in the United States. The services provided at St. Jude's are at no cost and Parents Magazine has referred to St. Jude's as the "No. 1 pediatric cancer cure hospital in the country" (based on comparisons with 75 children's hospitals throughout the nation) (www.stjude.org).

Because of the research done at St. Jude's, the doctors and staff have developed protocols that have helped raise the survival rate significantly (for children with cancer). To wit, in 1962 the survival rate was not even 20%, but by 2012, the survival rate for children with cancer has reached 80% (www.stjude.org). That said, the survival rate for a very serious kind of cancer, "acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)," has risen from 4% when the hospital first opened to 94% in 2012. The hospital prides itself on the fact that donations go where they do the most good -- not to a huge bureaucracy but to actual research and treatment.

The general population surrounding St. Jude's is made up of families of patients, nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals; and highly respected doctors and researchers like Nobel Prize winner Dr. Peter C. Doherty, who won the prize in 1966 for his research into Physiology or Medicine (www.stjude.org).