Memorial Sloan-Kettering's First Freestanding Outpatient Facility Opens in New Jersey

"Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's network sites are a critically important piece of our overall cancer care delivery system," said Abe Lopman, Executive Director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Regional Care Network. "In 2005, there were more than 100,000 outpatient visits at our regional facilities. One out of every two patients who receive radiation oncology treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering receives that treatment through the regional network. And one out of every three patients who receive chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering now receives it at one of our network sites. In addition, patients in the network who require surgery can have their initial consultations, preadmission testing, and postoperative follow-up care within the network."

"It gives us a lot of satisfaction to see something as beautiful, patient-friendly, and doctor-friendly as Basking Ridge built in our name to help take care of patients in New Jersey," said Memorial Sloan-Kettering President Harold Varmus. "The extraordinary Memorial Sloan-Kettering healthcare system has been created over a period of more than 100 years. Our ongoing efforts to extend the highest standards of comprehensive cancer care -- and the unparalleled expertise of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering staff -- to more patients, continue with the establishment of this newest facility in our unified system."

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge offers a full complement of services to detect, diagnose, and treat cancer. Delivered by 15 Memorial Sloan-Kettering clinicians and a staff of approximately 100 healthcare professionals and support staff, these services include medical and surgical consultations, outpatient chemotherapy, radiation oncology, diagnostic radiology, cancer screening, patient education, nutritional counseling, psychosocial support, and integrative medicine services.

Designed by the Philadelphia-based firm EwingCole, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge provides patients with an environment that strives to make the experience of being treated for cancer as stress-free as possible. "Even though we're expanding Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's ability to treat patients in the community, both in terms of facility size and the geographic area we cover, we've maintained a feeling that patients are coming to a smaller, more intimate facility," explained Laura A. Ward, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Project Administrator. "We've designed it so that from the moment patients enter, the person who greets them at the front desk is able to move each patient efficiently along to his or her first appointment -- whether to a physician's office, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy. So when you walk into the building, it's calm, comforting, and peaceful."

The patient-friendly environment extends to the treatment areas. Patients receiving chemo-therapy each have their own glassed-in "pods," four to six in a group, always within eyeshot of their nurses. While each pod offers visual and auditory privacy, the wood-and-translucent-glass walls diminish any sense of isolation. (To view a typical chemotherapy pod, see photograph below.) In addition, all pods have tranquil views of the wooded landscape; individual television sets; space and seating for two visitors who may stay with a patient throughout treatment; and controls that allow patients to remain in charge of their own environments. "Patients often need different levels of temperature when receiving treatment and, rather than warming or cooling the entire room, each patient can control the temperature directly over his or her infusion chair," said Mr. Lopman. "They can also control the amount of light they want, adjusting the light directly over their chairs for reading or relaxing."

Imaging technology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge includes a CT scanner, digital x-ray imaging, mammography, stereotactic mammography, and ultrasound diagnostics. Treatment tools include a CT simulator and two linear accelerators that map and deliver intensity-modulated radiation therapy -- a technology that enhances the precision of radiation therapy, allowing the delivery of high doses of radiation to tumors while sparing surrounding healthy tissue. And even here, the comfort of patients has been taken into account, so that typically isolated interior spaces, such as those used for MRI services, offer daylight and views of nature.

While miles may separate patients from Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Manhattan locations, physical distance only means avoiding a long commute -- not a lack of proximity to the Center community. "There is always an assurance for patients and their families that when they're being treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge, or at any of our network sites, they are truly in an extension of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's main campus," Mr. Lopman elaborated. "Multiple teleconferencing and videoconferencing locations were built at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge to accommodate the demand, and consultations and conferences are going on daily between the clinical staff in the regional programs and clinical staff at the Center. For example, when the breast conference is occurring on the main campus, the breast physicians from the network sites attend via teleconferencing."

In addition, radiological images are also easily shared between Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge and other network sites and Memorial Sloan-Kettering's main campus. "All our radiologists are tied into PACS [a system that manages images such as MRIs, CT scans, and x-rays and provides capabilities for off-site reviewing]," said Mr. Lopman. "Everyone is talking to everyone else all the time."

Memorial Sloan-Kettering's regional sites, including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge, have also allowed the Center to expand access to its clinical trials to a wider patient population. As of the end of 2006, 30 active clinical trial protocols are in progress across the entire network, 25 of which have enrolled at least one patient. In 2006, 107 network patients were accrued to clinical trials, and 283 patients throughout the Memorial Sloan-Kettering network sites are currently participating in trials.

"Clinical trials give patients access to new medications or combinations of treatments that are not routinely available, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge will be a flagship site for clinical research," observed Steven M. Sugarman, Assistant Chair, Department of Medicine. A medical oncologist, Dr. Sugarman has jurisdiction over all clinical trials performed in the regional network. "As our largest freestanding network location -- with full integration of medical oncology, radiology, and radiation oncology services, and the capacity for rapid growth -- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Basking Ridge has the potential to make a significant positive impact on clinical trial enrollment."

Concluded Ms. Ward, "This is yet another important benefit for patients. They can now take part in clinical trials right in their own communities, and our intention is to continue to develop and enlarge this effort."