Jordan New Director of Cancer Center

Bill Jordan anticipates Owensboro Health’s Mitchell Memorial Cancer Center becoming more
involved in clinical trials in the coming months and years, offering patients more treatment options.

Jordan began his role as director of the cancer center Monday. He’s spent the last 33 years in oncology, most recently with Integrated Oncology Solutions, which is headquartered in Nashville
and has 65 to 70 sites in 15 states.
“One of the goals (Owensboro Health) has for me is to come in and develop out the oncology service line, so that is a goal for me in which I have a lot of experience,” Jordan said. “Having been
in oncology as long as I have, I’ve seen so many changes just in oncology — the number of new drugs that are coming out, the new services, the new procedures and tests that are out there. So being able to develop out a medical oncology or radiation oncology service line (is a focus).”

Chris Sale, Owensboro Health’s vice president of operations, said Jordan’s track record makes him a perfect fit to lead Owensboro Health’s oncology services.

“Bill has consistently demonstrated his ability to drive positive results in quality, efficiency and
patient experience,” Sale said. “We are confident that his expertise and commitment will be
instrumental in further elevating the exceptional care provided at the Mitchell Memorial Cancer
Center.”

Jordan, a Texas native, holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s in business
administration with an emphasis on healthcare administration. He said the opportunity at Owensboro Health offered him numerous positives, both professionally and personally.

“I had looked at the position, and I saw what they had, and for a small town they had a great
program, and it looked like it was continuing to grow,” Jordan said. “I thought, I’ve been doing the network thing, building bigger programs for networks, and I thought it would be nice to get back into a small town and focus on one place.”

Jordan said the city offers a nice lifestyle change from what he had in Nashville. “I grew up in a small town outside of Fort Worth, Texas, so I thought it would be nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of Nashville, all of the traveling I was doing, and be able to come to a small
town, have a higher quality of life, a relaxed state of mind to be in a place like this,” he said. 

“After visiting the city a couple of times before accepting the job, I was like, this is the best kept secret around this part of the country. It’s a beautiful area. I thought it would be a great opportunity.”

He said he’s excited that his new position will allow him to be more hands-on than he was in his previous position.

“(The facility) is already great, but I want to make it even better,” Jordan said. “I just want to
continue to expand and maintain and protect the culture that has been created here. I’ll roll up my sleeves, will jump in and help the nurses do whatever I need to do so the nurses can keep focusing on patients.”

Jordan will oversee Radiation Oncology, Oncology Infusion, the Hematology/Oncology clinic, tumor registries and Oncology research. He is also focused on the cancer center being more involved in clinical trials.

“One focus that I will have is around clinical trials and research growth and development,” he said. “I know we partner with the University of Kentucky already, but to be able to expand the clinical trial department is a passion of mine.

“Having built research programs from the ground up in my past — and expanded other programs — it’s just bringing one more opportunity for patients that they may not have otherwise. And at the end of the day, maybe the clinical trial doesn’t benefit the patient that’s on it at the moment, but it will benefit patients down the road.” Jordan said it’s important the cancer center aligns with the correct clinical trials to get maximum results.

“It’s opening clinical trials that make sense, that are going to do well and that are going to be
successful,” he said. “I’m not going to open a clinical trial just to open a clinical trial, because you may have a trial that a sponsor wants you to open that may be a rare disease you only see in one or two patients a year, so it’s not worth the time and effort to go through that, where they could open that same clinical trial at a bigger university or bigger place where they may see a lot more patients.

“We want to make sure we’re focused on the right trials, based on our patient and disease mix
populations.”