By By John Burton
MIDDLETOWN – “A cancer diagnosis is difficult enough,” acknowledged Memorial Sloan Kettering’s José Baselga, M.D., Ph.D., Monday morning. “Traveling shouldn’t make it harder.”
And that, in a sentence, sums up the intention of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s strategy behind its latest out-patient facility at 480 Red Hill Road, said those affiliated with the medical center, recognized as a leader in cancer treatment.
Baselga, who is Sloan Kettering’s physician-in-chief and chief medical officer, joined other members of the institution and local, county and state elected officials, along with a Matawan patient who offered her views on what her treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering has meant to her well-being, for the grand opening of its new facility in the township.
Memorial Sloan Kettering representatives and elected officials have said since the project was first announced more than two years ago that this would be of great benefit to patients and their families living in Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex counties, as well as Staten Island, New York, who would be spared the additional burden of having to travel to New York City or MSK’s Basking Ridge facility for cancer treatment.
With this outpatient, day-stay facility, “Now all the daily needs for a cancer patient will be here in this building,” said Craig B. Thompson, a physician who serves as MSK’s president and chief executive officer, at Monday’s ceremony. Richard R. Barakat, deputy physician-in-chief for MSK’s regional care network, said about 20 percent of patients receiving treatment at one of its facilities live in the Ocean-Monmouth-Middlesex county area.
The approximately 290,000 square-foot facility had been an office complex for the telecommunications industry’s Lucent Technologies but had been vacant for about a dozen years. Memorial Sloan Kettering renovated the site, creating two structures, incorporating patient and family care services as well as becoming MSK’s data center.
Thompson said the operation’s previous data center in the Meadowlands area was compromised by 8 inches of water from Super Storm Sandy in 2012.
A large crowd turned out to cut the ceremonial ribbon at the MSK open house Monday. From left were: Assemblyman Declan J. O’Scanlon Jr.; Dr. Elizabeth Jewell; Monmouth County Freeholder Thomas A. Arnone; Dr. Richard R. Barakat; Dr. Craig B. Thompson; Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State of New Jersey Kim Guadagno; Dr. José Baselga; Middletown Mayor Dr. Gerard P. Scharfenberger; Dr. Jason Konner. Photo courtesy of Memorial Sloan Kettering
The patient facility on the Middletown/Holmdel border is tentatively scheduled to begin patient treatment on Dec. 12, pending final approval from the state Department of Health.
The location will offer variety of services, such chemo and radiation therapy; space for visits with oncologists and surgeons; diagnostic imaging, such as MRIs and CAT scans; and support services, social workers and nutritional counseling.
The site will also have operating rooms “for relatively straightforward procedures” that can be performed on a day-stay basis, Thompson said. For the occasion that needs an overnight hospital stay, MSK is in discussion with Hackensack Meridian Health to partner with its Riverview Medical Center, in neighboring Red Bank, he said.
Hackensack Meridian has partnered with Memorial Sloan Kettering to provide hospice and palliative care programs, along with some inpatient services as needed, according to April Guillerme, public relations manager for Riverview Medical Center and Bayshore Community Hospital, Holmdel, also part of the Hackensack Meridian network. “A collaboration by our organizations means that patients can truly remain close to home throughout their treatment plan and offers a continuum of care that is sometimes needed when facing a cancer diagnosis,” Guillerme said in an email response.
The location will be able to offer clinical trials on experimental procedures that can offer hope for additional treatments for patients battling difficult and aggressive conditions, MSK representatives pointed out.
The purpose of this facility, like all Sloan Kettering sites, is to go beyond just the most advanced cancer treatments and “treat the patient as a whole,” explained Elizabeth Jewell, M.D., regional surgical director for this location and the Basking Ridge site.
Middletown Mayor Gerard P. Scharfenberger quipped this project reflected what elected officials hope for but rarely experience: “A project that 100 percent of residents are in favor of.”
The new Memorial Sloan Kettering outpatient cancer treatment center in Middletown has a number of operating rooms that will allow for day-stay surgical procedures. Photo courtesy of Christina Johnson
On a more personal note, Scharfenberger added, “I’d like to thank Sloan Kettering for saving my mother-in-law’s life,” with its treatment; on top of now “shortening my commute” from 1 1⁄2 hours to Basking Ridge to a few minutes for his mother-in-law’s follow-up visits, the mayor added.
The Middletown Township Committee showed its support in 2014 by changing its zoning ordinance to allow a medical facility in this zone, initially intended for commercial, retail and residential.
“Rarely do elected officials get to see a project get started and get completed on their watch,” observed Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, being thankful that this facility will be up and running shortly.
The facility, Guadagno said, represents an economic benefit for the region, creating local jobs, shortening the commute for employees who are Monmouth County residents and having some staff relocate to the area. But probably most profoundly, she said, for patients, “The good story is the help you need is here.”
The Middletown facility will have roughly 200 employees and the data center will have another 100 workers, according to Guadagno.
The state offered its support for the project early in the process. The state Economic Development Authority (EDA), what Guadagno on Monday called “the state’s bank,” had provided a multi-million-dollar tax credit over a 10-year period and direct financial aid through bonds for the facility, an EDA spokesman said in 2014.
Memorial Sloan Kettering’s main location is in Manhattan. But since 2006, the facility has opened other sites in suburban areas, first in Basking Ridge. That was followed by locations in Westchester County, Long Island and Sleepy Hollow, in New York. MSK is planning another such facility for the Bergen County area.
