A ribbon cutting in late September officially celebrated changes and additions to the 200,000 square-foot Sarah Cannon Cancer Center at Centennial.

Sarah Cannon Celebrates Completion of $30 Million Construction Project

With the snip of a ribbon, The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center at Centennial officially marked completion of a massive $30 million expansion project that fully integrates cancer diagnosis and treatment under one roof.

The grand opening ceremony, held at the end of September, offered the community a first look at changes and additions to the 200,000 square-foot medical facility. Earl Swensson Associates were the lead architects on the project that included a new entrance, lobby, registration area, pre-admission testing space and four state-of-the-art operating rooms, among other amenities.

Ryan Simpson, administrator and chief operating officer for The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center, said the project added a relatively small amount of new square footage but renovated and reconfigured a significant portion of the existing space to maximize efficiency both for patients and providers by centralizing services and resources.

“The newest and most substantial part of the expansion is the addition of four operating rooms — each approximately 600 square feet in size with high capacity OR tables. All of the operating rooms are equipped with state-of-the-art LED lighting, anesthesia equipment, and PACS integration,” he said. “Within the surgical services area, we also have our onsite sterilization department.”

The new operating rooms are located directly above radiation oncology. “There are some patients who have procedures that combine surgical care with radiation therapy on the same day, and our renovated facility allows us to have those services located together,” he said.

Simpson noted the project also included adding robotic surgery capabilities — primarily used for prostate surgery cases, gastrointestinal cancers and gynecologic oncology cases — on site at the center. “We have had robotic surgery at Centennial for many years, but we have added a brand new da Vinci robotic surgery system to Sarah Cannon.”

Through this expansion project, he continued, “We have added dedicated surgical services to The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center. It allows the oncology patient to receive their surgical care, radiology care and medical oncology care all under one roof.”

While the convenience factor was an important consideration, the all inclusive nature of the project also addresses a key health concern by keeping oncology patients, who often have compromised immune systems, from having to travel across the larger medical campus and be exposed to a much broader population. “In essence, we’ve created a hospital within a hospital that contains all the services needed to treat the oncology patient,” Simpson noted.

In addition to the operating rooms, another key feature is the new entrance and lobby space. “It allows the patient to walk just a short distance to register for services,” Simpson said. The spacious lobby and waiting area were designed to incorporate natural light and were finished using warm accents. “Adjacent to the new lobby is a healing garden, which is a nice landscape feature for patients and their families to have an outdoor, natural healing environment,” he added.

Immediately off the lobby is a new Resource Center with print materials on various cancer types, computers with Internet access, and patient education materials from the Minnie Pearl Cancer Foundation. The new central area also includes registration, pre-admission testing and a refreshment room.

As part of the new construction The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center now has an onsite laboratory, blood bank and satellite pharmacy for chemotherapy dispensing. Previously, these services were spread throughout the main hospital.

“The design of the center is somewhat similar to an ambulatory surgery center with regard to its processes and efficiency,” Simpson noted of the forethought that went into layout. However, he added, not only does The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center perform outpatient surgeries, but the facility also handles complex inpatient cases. Adding to the facility’s efficiency, Simpson said a new automated patient tracking system is in the works and should be online near the end of 2010. “It will allow the surgeon, as well as the patient’s family members, to visually see the progress of either the next case or of their family member with regards to the perioperative process.”

Simpson concluded, “Cancer patients often have enough stress without the intimidation of a large hospital. By having all these services under one roof, we hope to provide a more comforting and less stressful treatment environment.”

The Sarah Cannon Cancer Center project is part of a larger $143 million expansion at Centennial Medical Center that will also add 51 beds and a dedicated heart and vascular center by the summer of 2012. Completion of the Sarah Cannon expansion took approximately one year.

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