New Cancer Center Chief Clinical Operating Officer: 'Our Focus Must be on Speed'

Vince Jensen says National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers need to deliver the newest therapies and discover new treatments.

City of Hope’s new chief clinical operating officer will lead clinical operations at the organization’s main campus in Los Angeles and throughout its network of more than three dozen care locations in southern California.

Vince Jensen, MBA, started his new position in February and has worked at City of Hope for 22 years. He joined City of Hope as a managed care executive and served as senior vice president of ambulatory operations before taking on his current role.

HealthLeaders recently talked with Jensen about his new position and a range of issues including growth opportunities, adding a physician group to City of Hope, and national centers of excellence relationships. The following transcript of that conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

HealthLeaders: What are some of the major initiatives occurring within clinical operations management at City of Hope?

Vince Jensen: City of Hope is one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States. In southern California alone, we have 37 care locations focused on bringing leading-edge oncology care and clinical research trials to those who need us.

My focus is to strategically position City of Hope's clinical enterprise for future growth, excellence in care, and efficiency. As a country, we have a long way to go in removing health disparities. Patients continue to face geographic, insurance, and socioeconomic barriers in accessing lifesaving care and research in oncology. Oftentimes, our most vulnerable populations have the least access to highly advanced care.    

We are working to overcome some of these challenges through advocacy efforts on behalf of cancer patients and by operationally expanding our reach so we can care for patients closer to their home. We believe access to world-class and highly specialized cancer treatment should be widely available to those need it most.

Recently, City of Hope signed an agreement with Pacific Shores Medical Group that expanded our clinical network presence to thousands of patients in southern California—adding seven new locations: Glendale, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Torrance, and two in Long Beach. In addition, earlier this month, we opened a new 32,500-square-foot cancer care location in Corona, expanding our programs and services to that community and significantly increasing the size of our site in that city to meet growing demand.

HL: What are the key benefits of adding Pacific Shores Medical Group to your network?

Jensen: Selecting physicians who have intense passion for City of Hope’s clinical and research mission is an important part of delivering excellence in cancer care. As cancer therapies become more complex, the power of knowledge really can save lives. Adding talented physicians gives us an opportunity to further share and collaborate in new and exciting ways.

For example, our Pacific Shores physicians brought with them a portfolio of new clinical research and ways of providing care in the community setting. Our goal is to share best practices, learn from each other, and develop an evolved organization that is constantly learning and adapting.

HL: You led the opening of a new 34,000-square-foot outpatient clinic. Why was this facility important to City of Hope?

Jensen: The Southeast Ambulatory Clinic is the first of a few planned outpatient expansions on City of Hope’s main campus in Los Angeles. The exciting part of this new development was the opportunity to think more strategically about how we can better utilize existing space to serve the needs of our patients. This will be done through a combination of new buildings and a redesign of existing spaces to achieve new capacity with reasonable speed.

This new center was unique in that we converted administrative space into a large clinical area—adding about 30% more exam rooms for patients and physicians. New capacity means we can reduce wait times for critical cancer care. As an added benefit, the new space is a beautiful and tranquil environment for our patients and physicians.

HL: What elements of clinical operations are unique to a cancer research and treatment institution?

Jensen: As a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, City of Hope offers patients breakthrough cancer care not yet available to the general population. Every year, City of Hope conducts nearly 1,000 clinical trials. Compared to other diseases, operations in a cancer research and clinical medical institution is quite different. Our focus must be on speed—whether that’s delivering the newest therapies, discovering new treatments, or delivering a new cancer center to serve a population—we carry the responsibility of knowing there are newly diagnosed patients in need of these novel advancements now.

Among our priorities, we are working to ensure leading-edge cancer care is available to more people, not just to those who live near a comprehensive cancer center or an academic institution. As a result, City of Hope is offering clinical trials in our community practice sites, such as Antelope Valley, South Bay, South Pasadena, and more. We hire trained professionals, including clinical trial nurses, who are experienced in research operations and able to deliver high-quality clinical care in community locations. To succeed in this effort, we’ve created infrastructure where we have clinical trial champions—physicians who can help build that bridge from our campus in Los Angeles to our community practice sites. As we look to the future, City of Hope will continue to open new research care locations focused on bringing new and innovative trials to communities that may not otherwise have access to them.

HL: What are areas of future growth for City of Hope?

Cancer screening and precision medicine are important initiatives for us. The pandemic slowed cancer screening across the country, increasing the risk that cancers are discovered at later and more complex stages. City of Hope continues to be an advanced screening center for all cancers, and we continue to encourage the community to be diligent about routine breast, prostate, and colon screenings.

Our precision medicine program continues to transform care by delivering new treatments customized to a patient’s own diagnosis and personal genomics. We are also leading the country in cellular therapies designed to "teach" a patient's own immune system, such as its T cells, to find and destroy cancer by looking for specific proteins.

These new therapies offer exciting results and new possibilities for patients who did not respond to other types of cancer treatments. In the near future, we will see the most promising of these treatments become the preferred approach after cancer diagnosis. However, given the complexity of the therapies, it will be important that patients have access to an academic center that can deliver this critical care.

HL: What role have you played in the creation of national centers of excellence relationships?

Jensen: The role of a center of excellence is to highlight institutions that are among the best in the country for quality, volume, safety, and effectiveness. This determination is made only after a rigorous review of data, including clinical outcomes. In my early days at City of Hope, I was focused on the development of these center of excellence relationships. Today as chief clinical operation officer, my role is to ensure we can continue to exceed the rigorous quality and operational standards we are held to as a center of excellence.

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