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Signing the Beam: L-r: White Plains Hospital CEO Jon Schandler, White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach, President Susan Fox, cancer survivor and featured speaker Louise Kuklis, Dr. Mark Fialk (her doctor), and Board Chair J. Michael Divney. Photos, Courtesy White Plains Hospital by John Vecchiola
WPCNR POST ROAD POST. Special to WPCNR From White Plains Hospital Medical Center. November 18, 2014:
White Plains Hospital President Susan Fox and Board Chairman J. Michael Divney were joined Wednesday by White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach as well as Cancer Center physicians, nurses, and patients to sign the final beam for a modern new cancer care facility rising next to the existing Dickstein Cancer Treatment Center.
When construction is finished in fall 2015, the 40,000-square-foot, 6-story building will nearly double the size of the Hospital’s cancer program to 70,000 square feet, and will provide space for the Hospital’s growing number of cancer experts, researchers, and patients.
The construction is part of the Hospital’s campus-wide enhancements, which include a new 6-story patient tower with new operating suites, private patient rooms, lobby and entranceway on Davis Avenue, as well as the addition and expansion of the building for cancer services on the corner of E. Post Road and Longview Avenue.
“As our Cancer Center grows, we are expanding the capacity of nearly every service, from our chemotherapy treatment facilities, examination rooms, and family amenities, to our consultation offices,” said Susan Fox, White Plains Hospital President.
“We will be able to accommodate the growing number of cancer patients who come to White Plains Hospital so they can receive advanced and comprehensive cancer care and remain close to home.” The number of people with cancer treated at White Plains Hospital rose by 15% from 2012 to 2013.
‘It’s My Home Away from Home’
To long-term cancer patients such as Louise Kuklis,( pictured above) who has been living with Stage IV metastatic colon cancer for five years, White Plains Hospital’s Cancer Center is “my home away from home.”
Speaking at today’s ceremony, Ms. Kuklis noted that large cancer institutions cannot offer what the White Plains Hospital Cancer program does: expert clinical care and personalized attention in the intimate setting of a community hospital. During Ms. Kuklis’ years of chemotherapy, nurses have treated her as family member, greeting her warmly each time she walks in the door. The nurses tailored her chemo schedule to ensure she felt as good as possible to celebrate life’s big moments, such as her son’s wedding and the birth of her first grandchild. “For me, they turned a deadly diagnosis into something I could live with,” she said.
White Plains Hospital’s patient-centered approach is reflected in the new building. Amenities include a welcoming reception area, space for a café, boutique, complementary therapies, and a patient medical library, as well as office space for the program’s rapidly expanding staff of cancer clinical specialists.
The Cancer Center’s beam signing ceremony took place just months after the September 30th topping off of the Hospital’s new 6-story patient tower. The tower will add 5 state-of-the-art operating rooms specially designed to accommodate the minimally invasive surgery used whenever possible and in many cancer treatment plans. The new tower includes 3 stories of private patient rooms.