COURTESY QUEEN'S MEDICAL CENTER The Queen's Medical Center's new $6 million Cancer Center, with a lobby rendering shown above, is expected to open this fall, providing tumor diagnoses, chemotherapy infusions, imaging services and pain care, among other services. CLICK FOR LARGE |
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Queen's Cancer Center on track for fall opening
Queen's Medical Center's new cancer facility is under construction and well on its way to its expected opening date this fall.
At a cost of $6 million, the 21,000-square-foot Cancer Center is poised to become the premier facility for cancer patients in Hawaii by providing all services in one area.
There will be tumor diagnoses, chemotherapy infusions, radiation therapy, imaging services, and pain care in addition to genetic, nutritional, psychiatric and financial counseling, healing touch, acupuncture and massage therapy.
All of this, according to Darlena Chadwick, Queen's vice president for patient care, will be in a homelike atmosphere of hardwood floors and exam rooms in cinnamon and sage.
It's a holistic approach which pays attention to the cancer patient as well as his or her family. Patients should be able to seek all cancer-related care here, she said, without flying to the mainland.
A designated navigator will help each patient steer through the path from diagnosis to surgery and follow-up treatments, serving as a liaison with the doctor and scheduling necessary appointments.
In the new, lower level radiation center, a waiting room will greet patients with a tea station and places to converse in private.
Patients will be given bathrobes instead of paper cover-ups. They will have access to free valet parking, a library, and numerous support groups -- even for the children of parents with cancer.
More than $50 million has been invested in state-of-the-art technology, which include a TomoTherapy device and Da Vinci robotic surgery system.
Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in Hawaii, with an estimated 2,260 deaths and 6,020 new cases to be diagnosed in the state this year, according to the American Cancer Society.