It’s just a building. One with an impressive array of former inhabitants, to be sure – from a card company that hopes you’ll care enough to send the very best to the global telecommunications firm that quickly outgrew the space.
For patients being treated for cancer, though, it will soon be more than just a building. Early next year, it becomes a state-of-the-art haven for healing.
The former Sprint headquarters on Shawnee Mission Parkway is now the Westwood Campus of The University of Kansas Hospital, joining KU MedWest as a satellite campus providing cancer care. The Westwood Campus sits a mile-and-a-half from the main campus at 39th & Rainbow and will house the hospital’s outpatient cancer center, allowing it to expand from 26,000 square feet in its current location to 55,000 square feet in its new home.
With patient volume already ballooning to levels originally predicted for 2009, the added space is sorely needed. By the end of 2005, outpatient visits had numbered nearly 23,000, up 171 percent in just four years.
“Our primary goal is to get our quality care to patients as promptly and easily as possible,” Irene Cumming, president and chief executive officer of The University of Kansas Hospital, said.
“We were able to add clinical space and parking on the Westwood Campus more quickly than we would have been able to develop on the main campus,” she added.
More space means more convenience for patients whose treatment may require the Breast Center’s diagnostic technology, an endoscopic ultrasound to detect cancers of the digestive track or labs and private treatment rooms for chemotherapy.
And it provides needed work space for about 300 of the hospital’s administrative personnel, who have already moved into the east section of the building. The $37-million renovation to the west wing will be complete sometime in the first half of 2007, ready to welcome its first patients.
That’s good news, especially for those who will benefit from the healing provided by the cancer center’s skilled health care professionals and ultra-modern equipment. But the center also plays an important role in enhancing the School of Medicine’s efforts to achieve National Cancer Institute designation. NCI designation is a key priority for both the hospital and the university.
“We’re very pleased that our faculty will have access to this state-of-the-art outpatient treatment center,” said Roy Jensen, MD, director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center. “Not only will it add to our ability to care for patients and enhance our research, but this facility will also provide a great foundation for our clinical program as we strive to attain NCI designation.”
Indeed, it’s just a building. But The University of Kansas Hospital’s newest campus also is so much more. +
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The University of Kansas Medical Center