New Cancer Treatment Facility Opens

Contact:
Avice Meehan
Christine Westerman
(212) 639-3573

NEW CANCER TREATMENT FACILITY OPENS

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Charts a New Direction in Outpatient Care

NEW YORK, June 1999 - A new standard for cancer care and comfort has been established with the opening of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Laurance S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion. The 190,000-square-foot facility located at 160 East 53rd Street in midtown Manhattan houses the most advanced programs for outpatient cancer diagnosis and treatment, in a calm and beautiful environment focused on the body, mind, and spirit.

"We believe this facility will serve as a national model for the delivery of outpatient cancer care in the new millennium," says Paul A. Marks, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

The outpatient pavilion includes state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, chemotherapy, pharmacy and cancer screening services, and expanded programs in women's health, cancer prevention and wellness, and integrative medicine. It is specially designed to bring patients the benefits of multidisciplinary teams of specialists who are experts in caring for patients with a - more - particular type of cancer. Services and floors at the Laurance S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion are organized by "disease teams" rather than by the traditional surgical or medical outpatient offices. A disease team includes surgical, medical, and radiation oncologists, pathologists, nurses, and other health professionals with expertise in a particular type of cancer.

To streamline access to the images and files necessary to care for each patient, the facility has more than 550 computers and uses the most advanced digital technology to create a nearly paperless and filmless environment. Critical and unique computer systems designed to assure privacy of all patient records include: a Disease Management System to chart the best step-by-step approach for each patient's treatment; an Electronic Medical Records System that uses digital technology to store electronic images of reports of patient visits and progress notes; and a Picture Archiving and Communications System that contains all diagnostic images, virtually eliminating the need for traditional x-ray films.

Patient care services at the new pavilion include: Gastrointestinal (including sarcomas, cancers of the liver, stomach, and intestine); Genitourinary (including prostate, bladder, and testicular cancers); Gynecology (including ovarian and cervical cancer); Dermatology (including skin cancer); Thoracic Oncology; Clinical Immunology; Cardiology and Pulmonary; Radiology; and Plastic and - more - Reconstructive Surgery consultations, as well as pharmacy services, a boutique, and a conference center.

The pavilion also offers several special programs and services including an Integrative Medicine Service to address patients' quality of life through complementary approaches to cancer care, expanded dermatology services such as Mohs' surgery and digital photo imaging for persons at high risk for melanoma, and a unique Pre-Admission Testing Program that uses an online tutorial and quiz - the first of its kind in the nation - to help prepare individuals for a specific surgery.

Implicit in all the systems and services at the Laurance S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion is the philosophy of ensuring that the care and comfort of patients is of utmost importance. The physical environment, which includes several waterfalls, sculptural gardens, and poems artistically penned into walls, panels, and glass, is uniquely designed to convey a sense of peace and well-being. Whether it is including benches in the elevators, creating separate spaces for staff and visitors, or designing chemotherapy suites equipped with a computer, phone, television, and VCR, no detail was overlooked when it came to addressing the needs of patients.

"This extraordinary new facility, with its patient-oriented physical design and its - more - emphasis on an integrated approach to patient care, stands as a symbol of our belief in the healing synergy between medical science and the power of each individual patient's mind, body, and spirit," says Laurance S. Rockefeller, Honorary Co-Chairman, Boards of Overseers and Managers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

It is expected that some 70 percent of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's outpatient activity will occur at the new pavilion. The facility houses 135 examination rooms, 61 chemotherapy treatment units in six suites, 16 procedure rooms, 12 diagnostic radiology rooms, a magnetic resonance imaging unit, two computed tomography scanners, and 47 consultation offices where physicians and nurses meet privately with patients and their families.

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