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Chesapeake — Chesapeake Regional Healthcare completed a cancer center addition, doubling its footprint and making it the first project ticked off a list of expansions planned for the hospital.
The Priority Toyota Cancer Center comes two years after announcing a $135 million construction overhaul, the centerpiece of which will be a 72,000-square-foot critical care tower for more cardiac, obstetrics and surgery space, as well as a renovated intensive care unit.
This follows a competitor opening a $93.5 million cancer building last year. Sentara Healthcare’s standalone facility in Norfolk is 10 times larger.
“Sentara developing the Brock Cancer Center was definitely a motivator, there’s no question about it,” said Reese Jackson, president and CEO of the community hospital. “But this, this makes perfect sense.”
The 12,000-square-foot Chesapeake addition involved navigating the certificate of public need hurdles with the state and overcoming a name change midway into a multimillion-dollar fundraising campaign.
The center offers imaging, treatment, physical therapy, palliative care, outpatient services and patient navigators.
Though the pandemic is the foremost public health crisis, cancer remains the leading cause of death in the state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — more than heart attacks or strokes. There were over 15,000 cancer deaths in 2017.
Renaming the center was a somewhat awkward shift. No longer is it called the Sidney M. Oman Cancer Treatment Center, named for the former mayor when it opened in 1995. The new moniker came with a large donation from Dennis Ellmer, president and CEO of Priority Automotive, Toyota USA.
A tribute to Oman’s legacy is in the new lobby.
With the capital investment is a host of new amenities, pushing the community hospital forward and giving it a chance to keep Southeastern Virginia patients in its system. The center also has cutting-edge equipment, enabled through joint ventures with Riverside Health and the University of Virginia. A partnership with Virginia Oncology Associates also allows more clinicians to see patients on site.
The oncology practice, which used to be in a Sentara building on Volvo Parkway, now resides on the second floor of the Chesapeake Regional center.
Perhaps the crown jewel is the stereotactic radiosurgery equipment.
Dr. Mathew Sinesi, medical director, recently showed off a radiation machine that cost $5 million. The room was enclosed with 6-foot concrete walls, thick enough to keep the zombie apocalypse out, he joked.
The staff’s first stereotactic radiosurgery was two weeks ago. Previously, the hospital sent close to 100 patients a year to Norfolk for procedures, Jackson said.
The technology allows doctors to pinpoint areas the size of an M&M with high doses of radiation, reducing the amount of healthy tissue exposed. When surrounding tissue doesn’t become collateral damage, doctors can often compress six-week procedures into a couple of days.
“Every doctor always wants the best endoscope, the best surgical instruments,” Senesi said. “The hospital spared no expense.”
The center also has a PET/CT scanner for advanced imaging. In the past, Chesapeake Regional patients often went to Norfolk for that service. But the hospital bought out other partners’ interests in a COPN for a scanner, allowing them to move it to the Chesapeake campus, Jackson said.
“We have this area’s best CT scanner at present, because it’s the newest one,” he said.
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The competition with Sentara is evident. It even seeps through a news release: The center is “the only clinic” in the region with an oncology rehab clinic staffed with three lymphedema therapists. (Sentara’s had two when it opened last summer.)
Chesapeake’s goal was to create an inviting center that would keep the community close for treatment. They designed the chemotherapy and infusion area to be soothing.
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Bays where patients will likely spend hours hooked up to machines face windows. Jackson calls virtual reality screens that play nature sounds and show water lapping on a beach the “Harry Potter” pictures. VR headsets, about $2,000 apiece, allow patients to tour Paris or go underwater diving. Outside is a pond stocked with baby koi.
Between units is an empty unfinished space. In the future, it will house a multispecialty clinic, Jackson said, with patients queued up for thoracic, colorectal and other surgeons.
In the short term, he wants to use it for something that’ll make Chesapeake Regional a better place to work. He’s thinking of converting it into a childcare center for employees.
“With this nursing shortage, and all the things that we’re going through, I’m toying with the idea,” he said.
Elisha Sauers, 757-839-4754, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com