CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston Area Medical Center is planning to build a comprehensive cancer outpatient center on the site of the former Watt Powell ballpark.

Later this month, CAMC plans to interview architects about the new $39 million cancer center in Kanawha City, which will replace the existing David Lee Cancer Center.

During a tour last week of the existing facility, hospital CEO David Ramsey said he hoped to start building in late 2011.

Funding would come from many sources. The CAMC Foundation is hoping to raise $15 million from the community.

"Philanthropy will help with a part of it, to be certain, and we'll float a bond issue to cover the rest," Ramsey said.

Jeff Goode, vice president of CAMC Ambulatory Services, said the new facility would include everything the current center has, plus spaces for consultation, radiation oncology, a healing garden, and more.

"We want to create a space that is architecturally conducive to the healing of cancer," Goode said. "It's all about access to care."

Plans include space for improved patient flow and capacity, patient education, patient care items (wigs, prostheses) and easy, front-door parking. A more welcoming, comforting lobby is expected as well.

CAMC will benefit from expanded space for research and clinical trials. Currently, 26 clinical trials are open at the cancer center, with 400 patients enrolled.

The new facility also will help attract and retain physicians, hospital leaders said.

The center has seven oncologists on staff, with two more coming next summer. Another oncologist is committed to come to CAMC in 2011 after his training is complete.

"It's hard to recruit medical oncologists, especially females, as there aren't very many of them," Goode said. "We're getting two females by next summer. And you can see the caliber of the center by the new doctors we're bringing in -- one is from M.D. Anderson [Cancer Center] in Texas and one is from the Mayo Clinic."

Cancer is expected to overcome heart disease as the No. 1 killer in 2010, according to the National Cancer Institute. The population is driving these numbers as the Baby Boomers age and the number of cardio deaths declines. 

The current facility has no room for expansion. It needs to.

The need for more space

The staff and patients at the David Lee Cancer Center are part of a close-knit community. The disease links them as they wend their way through testing, diagnosis, treatment and counseling.

Yet it's the facilities they work and heal in that force a different kind of closeness -- the cramped space at CAMC's Memorial Hospital allows for no elbow room.

Patients, doctors, pharmacists, nurses and lab techs continually say, "Pardon me," as they pass through the crowded halls and treatment areas.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston Area Medical Center is planning to build a comprehensive cancer outpatient center on the site of the former Watt Powell ballpark.

Later this month, CAMC plans to interview architects about the new $39 million cancer center in Kanawha City, which will replace the existing David Lee Cancer Center.

During a tour last week of the existing facility, hospital CEO David Ramsey said he hoped to start building in late 2011.

Funding would come from many sources. The CAMC Foundation is hoping to raise $15 million from the community.

"Philanthropy will help with a part of it, to be certain, and we'll float a bond issue to cover the rest," Ramsey said.

Jeff Goode, vice president of CAMC Ambulatory Services, said the new facility would include everything the current center has, plus spaces for consultation, radiation oncology, a healing garden, and more.

"We want to create a space that is architecturally conducive to the healing of cancer," Goode said. "It's all about access to care."

Plans include space for improved patient flow and capacity, patient education, patient care items (wigs, prostheses) and easy, front-door parking. A more welcoming, comforting lobby is expected as well.

CAMC will benefit from expanded space for research and clinical trials. Currently, 26 clinical trials are open at the cancer center, with 400 patients enrolled.

The new facility also will help attract and retain physicians, hospital leaders said.

The center has seven oncologists on staff, with two more coming next summer. Another oncologist is committed to come to CAMC in 2011 after his training is complete.

"It's hard to recruit medical oncologists, especially females, as there aren't very many of them," Goode said. "We're getting two females by next summer. And you can see the caliber of the center by the new doctors we're bringing in -- one is from M.D. Anderson [Cancer Center] in Texas and one is from the Mayo Clinic."

Cancer is expected to overcome heart disease as the No. 1 killer in 2010, according to the National Cancer Institute. The population is driving these numbers as the Baby Boomers age and the number of cardio deaths declines. 

The current facility has no room for expansion. It needs to.

The need for more space

The staff and patients at the David Lee Cancer Center are part of a close-knit community. The disease links them as they wend their way through testing, diagnosis, treatment and counseling.

Yet it's the facilities they work and heal in that force a different kind of closeness -- the cramped space at CAMC's Memorial Hospital allows for no elbow room.

Patients, doctors, pharmacists, nurses and lab techs continually say, "Pardon me," as they pass through the crowded halls and treatment areas.

The current clinic is the largest, regionally, with 30,000 patient encounters and 10,000 chemotherapy encounters each year.

The main area has 23 chemo chairs on one side of the lobby, and 13 exam rooms on the other side. Medical staff is crammed between patient areas.

Dr. James N. Frame, medical director of the center, points out Dr. Arun Nagarajan, seated at his desk in his tiny office. "That used to be a bathroom! We have exceptional space utilization."

The staff now shares one small unisex restroom. There are only two patient restrooms.

"Chemo can last between 45 minutes and 8 hours," explained Practice Administrator Beverly Farmer. "We wish we had more privacy, more comfortable surroundings."

The crowding will continue to get worse when the new doctors arrive in July 2010. "We went from 28 days to get an appointment when we had four doctors down to like a week's wait when we got two more doctors. But we're back up to around 28 days at this point," Farmer said.

The staff in the records room was at once thrilled and appalled with the thought of two more doctors on staff.

"We know we can treat more people, but at the same time, where are we going to put them?" asked April Means, the office manager.

There's a large mirror on one file cabinet so one staff member won't crash a file-filled cart into an incoming staff member. The rooms have reached maximum weight capacity for a second-floor office.

The records and telephone operators used to be where the state-of-the-art pharmacy now exists. Home to two full-time, board-certified oncology pharmacists, the lab has a negative pressure room where toxic chemo chemicals are mixed under three special venting hoods for the protection of the compounding pharmacist.

"We just keep shuffling the cards to make more space," pharmacist Carla Hively said. The pharmacy staff, elbow-to-elbow around a small workstation, was genuinely thrilled when they went from two small cubicles to the "larger" office they now occupy.

A tiny lab houses several lab techs processing blood and urine samples from 85 to 100 patients each day. Carmelita Lovejoy, a medical assistant, laughed as she stood at the counter doing paperwork.

"There's really no place to sit, so most of the time we just stand," she said.

Her upbeat nature, despite the overcrowded working conditions, was pervasive throughout the clinic.

"Why are we all smiling? Because we're here for the patients," Lovejoy said. "It's what we do."

Goode called the clinic the "stealth cancer center," as many people are unaware of all of the work that goes on at the facility.

"CAMC has to be everything to everyone. It's like a big funnel, and we have the patients coming here, but we can't fit all of them into this center," Goode said.

"Building this team of physicians has been critical for us," Frame said. "We're doing a great job. We just need more space."