LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System today celebrated the opening of its Monter Cancer Center, a $17 million, 37,000-square-foot facility that offers a spectrum of unparalleled cancer services in a stunning outpatient setting, providing patients with a calming atmosphere complete with indoor gardens and skylights.
The facility was named in honor of the Long Island-based Monter Family Foundation -- Gerald, Elliot, Marilyn and Ruth Monter. The center features 32 private chemotherapy treatment bays equipped with plasma televisions (part of the Phyllis and Stanley Kreitman Chemotherapy Center), and 23 examination and consultation rooms. Other components of the center include: physician offices, social work and support services, nutrition counseling, a bone marrow-stem cell transplant program, a patient education center, a cafe and a conference room with high-tech teleconferencing abilities.
“The Monter Cancer Center fuses the clinical talents of the North Shore- LIJ Health System to treat our cancer patients in a modern, comfortable outpatient environment that promotes healing and dignity,” said Michael J. Dowling, North Shore-LIJ’s president and chief executive officer. “This investment eliminates any reason for patients on Long Island or in Queens to commute to Manhattan to access renowned oncologists and the latest treatment options -- the best cancer care is now just a short car or bus ride away.”
The new center houses all of the comprehensive outpatient oncology programs now based at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Construction on the second phase of the project, which will accommodate outpatient cancer programs now based at LIJ Medical Center, is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed in 2007. North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center alone provide outpatient cancer services to more than 3,000 people a year.
The Monter Cancer Center anchors the North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Center for Advanced Medicine, which is envisioned as a “medical mall” that eventually will occupy about 450,000 square feet of space for an array of outpatient services -- a 23,000-square-foot, $13 million Ambulatory Surgery Center opened last year, and a 15,700-square-foot, $8.5 million Diagnostic Imaging Center is under construction and scheduled to open this summer. It is the only facility of its size and complexity on Long Island and Queens specializing in ambulatory services.
With the number of newly diagnosed cancer cases expected to increase more than 20 percent by 2010, North Shore-LIJ saw the need to design a free- standing outpatient facility, conveniently located to major thoroughfares with easy parking, for cancer patients to get evaluations and ambulatory treatment.
Treatment options include a full range of the latest chemotherapeutic and biologic therapies. The Monter Cancer Center promotes active participation in clinical trials and offers patients access to national cooperative group trials, including the prestigious National Cancer Institute Community Clinical Oncology Program, among other consortiums and industry-sponsored trials.
“The new center not only provides patients with easy access to the most up-to-date cancer treatments in a state-of-the-art building, it gives patients the added comfort of knowing that their surgeries will be performed nearby,” said Vincent Vinciguerra, MD, chief of North Shore University Hospital’s Don Monti Division of Medical Oncology and Division of Hematology. “No doubt, getting a cancer diagnosis can be devastating. By arranging the myriad of services a patient will need within a few miles’ radius and coordinating treatment, we can reduce anxiety and allow patients to focus more of their energy on healing and recovery.”
The Monter Cancer Center was designed by EwingCole, a Philadelphia-based architecture and design firm. The facility was once home to a World War II-era defense plant operated by the Sperry Gyroscope Co., and was the first headquarters of the United Nations while the current UN was under construction in Manhattan. The site was later used by several defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp., which built advanced navigation systems for the U.S. Navy’s ballistic missile and nuclear submarines.
The design team reused the warehouse building’s three, 120-foot-long skylights, which brought sunlight pouring into the otherwise drab space. The center’s layout is organized around the skylights to bring as much daylight as possible into the patient care areas. Taking advantage of the sunlight, more than 50 bamboo trees were planted in main entrance, adding a serene, garden- like space to the facility.
In addition to the Monters and Kreitmans, other major donors included Randi and Bruce Pergament.
North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
CONTACT: Terry Lynam or Michelle Pinto, both for North Shore-Long IslandJewish Health System, +1-516-465-2600
Web site: http://www.northshorelij.com/
