Volume 26 • No. 7
Efforts to boost OR efficiency are starting to pay off
Steps under way to improve OR efficiency
Profile: Andrew Newman (scuba diver/pulmonologist)
Completion of cancer center expected in late fall 2003
Device tested at Stanford may improve breast cancer diagnosis and treatment
As of late June, the foundation for the Center for Cancer Treatment and Prevention/Ambulatory Care Pavilion was nearly complete, and portions of the building's exterior walls had been erected. The facility is expected to be complete in late fall 2003.
Completion of cancer center expected in late fall 2003
The construction of Stanford's much-awaited Center for Cancer Treatment and Prevention/Ambulatory Care Pavilion is progressing steadily, with the entire foundation in place as of mid-July and the steel frame expected to be fully erected by the end of September.
John Gaston, project manager for the 218,000-sq.-ft. facility, said he expects that construction will be complete by November 2003 and that the building will be occupied by the end of that year.
"Things have been going pretty smoothly," Gaston said. "This building will bring a lot to the community and the staff, so we want to deliver it to them as soon as we possibly can."
First proposed 11 years ago, the center will bring under one roof all of Stanford's resources for diagnosing and treating cancer, thereby enhancing patient care and improving access and convenience for patients and physicians. Comprising 150,000 sq. ft. on two and a half floors of the four-story building, the cancer center will include a radiation therapy suite, a mammography and diagnostic radiology unit, 80 exam rooms, 50-plus chemotherapy stations, social and nutritional services, and an academic and clinical research suite.
The center will significantly expand Stanford's capacity to treat cancer patients; currently, just 80,000 sq. ft. at Stanford Hospital is dedicated to cancer treatment, Gaston said.
Similarly, the new Ambulatory Care Pavilion - which will occupy 70,000 sq. ft. on the top floor of the new facility - will nearly triple the amount of space dedicated to outpatient surgery (currently 21,000 sq. ft. at Stanford Hospital). The ambulatory care center will house 16 operating rooms, the hospital's endoscopic surgery center, the sports medicine surgery suite, the ophthalmology program, and temporary outpatient pediatric surgery services for Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
Some 200 parking spaces were lost with the cancer center construction, and parking designations in several lots were changed. The lots will return to their previous designations with the opening of Parking Structure 4, expected in February 2003. The 500-ft.-long, 200-ft.-wide underground garage in front of Stanford Hospital will include 1,029 spaces on four levels, all for physicians and staff. Construction has been proceeding on schedule. As of August, all four levels of parking will have been formed and poured.
The opening of the new parking structure will free up Parking Structure 3 for patient and visitor parking. The lot behind the Blake Wilbur Clinic - now designated for permit parking - will become public parking as well.
Real-time views of the cancer center construction site are available at www. rsconstruction.com, which links to a 24-hour Web camera overlooking the site. Visitors to the Web site can also view the facility in previous stages of construction by using a time-lapse function.
