Comprehensive Cancer Center Expansion in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

John D. McConnell, MD, CEO, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, discusses the expansion of the Medical Center's Comprehensive Cancer Center. http://www.wakehealth.edu/Comprehensi... TRANSCRIPT: JOHN McCONNELL/CEO: Our Comprehensive Cancer Center has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the leading cancer hospitals in America. This is largely a reflection of the quality of our physicians, but it's also a reflection of the high quality of cancer care provided and the outcomes achieved by our patients. We made the decision to build the state's largest integrated comprehensive cancer hospital several years ago when our cancer programs were growing to the point where we really needed to bring our outpatient and inpatient programs together in a single location. So on top of the pre-existing outpatient facility we're adding a four-story inpatient addition, and on top of that will be a conference center where our cancer researchers and physicians can work together to develop new treatments and diagnostic modalities for cancer. This addition, which creates the full cancer hospital integrated model is a $125 million project that will be completed at the end of calendar year 2013. The inpatient component of the facility will house 148 dedicated cancer beds, an additional cadre of observation beds for patients who just need overnight observation after chemotherapy and other purposes, and dedicated cancer intensive care unit space that will largely house our world-class Bone Marrow Transplant unit. On the outpatient side, the facility houses Radiation Oncology- including Gamma Knife. Our Gamma Knife program was the first in the state of North Carolina and remains one of the busiest, most preeminent Gamma Knife centers in all of America. On the inpatient side we’ll offer the full range of cancer services and all of our patients who require cancer treatments who need to be in the hospital will be admitted to that unit. In addition to that, we have a variety of support services that are located in this new facility which include Patient Navigator systems, which includes Outpatient Pharmacy, Outpatient Infusion areas, Social Work- caseworkers who help patients through their cancer journey. It includes a lot of other general support for patients and their families who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis. As excited as we are about this new facility, at the end of the day our cancer programs are about people. They're about our patients, they’re about our physicians and nurses and social workers and case managers who dedicate their career to the care of cancer patients. And what this new facility means to them is a great home in order to provide their services. But what is also unique about this cancer facility in my view is that our cancer research programs are very nearby and on a daily basis, we will have cancer physicians and surgeons working closely with researchers to advance clinical research and develop new treatments for cancer- because we all have to admit, we're not where we need to be in terms of our overall cure of cancer in this country. Wake Forest Baptist is very proud to be one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in America. A NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center is the highest bar of achievement for a comprehensive cancer center in America. This requires an amazing level of research achievement, but more importantly requires that that research be applied to improve the care of individual patients. And the unique set of skills and abilities and technologies that NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers bring to the table make them very unique assets in their communities. Three major clinical programs that link back to research programs at our institutions include the Hearn Brain Tumor Center of Excellence, our Breast Center, and our Prostate Center. In each of these areas, we're bringing novel therapies from our basic science efforts to the bedside for the patients who suffer from those forms of malignancy. It is one of the distinguishing characteristics of NCI-designated centers that we are the home of intellectual capital that will lead to the next generation of cures for our patients.