New cancer center under construction

COURTESY PHOTO From the left, Lee Memorial Health System Chief Medical Officer Dr. C.B. Rebsamen; Ambulatory Services Administrator Suzanne Bradach; Chief Administrative Officer, Ambulatory Services Geurt Peet; and Vice President of Lee Cancer Care and the Foundation, Sharon MacDonald. A new cancer center is being built near I-75 in Fort Myers. Patients fighting cancer and needing additional diagnostic testing will soon be able to have both needs met in one location.

A topping out ceremony was held on Friday for the cancer center while officials broke ground on the neighboring diagnostic center.

A new complex is being built on Colonial Boulevard, near I-75, that will house four local providers in the cancer center. On the same 13-acre plot of land, a diagnostic center is also being constructed.

"It's going to be more like a medical village," said Sharon MacDonald, chief foundation officer for Lee Memorial Health System.

The cancer center is slated to encompass 62,000 square feet and four stories. A conference room will be situated on the fourth story where classes will also be held. The property will also feature a palm walk, meditation atrium, healing garden and labyrinth.

"It will be a wonderful nurturing feeling for patients going through dark times in their lives. It is designed to be more of a healing environment than a medical facility. Patients won't walk in and see a white, sterile environment," said Sharon MacDonald. "Lee Memorial is taking the leadership role in providing comprehensive cancer care."

The cancer center is expected to cost $25 million. Officials are offsetting the costs through fundraising activities.

Although the ceremony is to celebrate laying the uppermost part of the structure, enough of the facility has been built to allow people to tour some interior areas.

The diagnostic center is scheduled to be 80,000 square feet and will also house medical offices. Inside, patients will be able to undergo outpatient surgeries, visit radiologists, and attend pain management classes and rehabilitation sessions.

By March of 2009, the entire complex is expected to be operational.

"I think the strategy is to try to make the delivery of services more convenient and accessible to the public," MacDonald said.

She said even the location was selected to make it accessible to growing Lee County.

"It's close to I-75, which is very convenient to the folks coming from the east and from Cape Coral," MacDonald said. "We wanted it to be in the path of progress. The I-75 corridor is becoming more and more important. It's one exit up from the new Gulf Coast Hospital. It's a tight location to that new hospital."