Mission Hospital’s $80 Million Cancer Institute Opens Nov. 7 in Mission Viejo

Congratulations to Chamber member, Mission Hospital! An $80 million cancer institute  is opening this week that will give south Orange County patients an option for treatment closer to home.

​Please enjoy this article from the Orange County Register.

On Thursday, Nov. 7, the hospital is opening the first two floors of its four-story, 104,000-square-foot Leonard Cancer Institute.  Located across the street from Mission Hospital’s main campus and next to the Shops at Mission Viejo, the institute is the first cancer research and treatment facility based in south county, hospital officials said.

Development of the institute was financed largely through private donations, including an eight-figure gift from Judi and Bill Leonard, for whom the facility is named.
The region’s cancer patients have been traveling as far away as Los Angeles County to get treatment, Mission Hospital’s Vice President of Operations Terry Wooten said. That meant when those residents came to Mission Hospital for emergency care, they were assigned to doctors and nurses who were not as familiar with their medical history, he said.

Patients will be able to access different types of services, from CT scans to chemotherapy or radiation, all without leaving the building, hospital spokeswoman Carrie Miller said. “It’s seamless care.”

The first two floors of the institute opening this week house several offices for doctors, as well as rooms for radiation therapy and imaging scans such as X-ray and CT.
Two tons of bricks – each one is 8-feet thick – enclose two radiation “vaults” on the first floor. There is space for one more vault if the hospital wants to expand its capability, Wooten said.

There are also rooms for physical therapy and a space filled with treadmills and other fitness equipment to help patients with their rehabilitation.
Doctors and nurses from different disciplines will be gather in a conference room – which has three 96-inch screens and fits 50 people – to discuss how to best treat a patient. The patient, sitting in a room near by, can then be debriefed immediately after the staff’s conference.

“The patient was at the center of every decision” the hospital made in designing the institute, Miller said. The institute is not just built to provide treatment, she said, but to promote the patients’ wellness.
A wellness spa on the first floor will provide massages and aromatherapy, and a chapel and a small outdoor healing garden will be a space for patients to find peace amid their treatment, Miller said.

The fourth floor, offering infusion treatments, will open early next year. The third floor, home to a digestive care center, will open in late summer, Wooten said.

Mission Hospital is part of the Providence St. Joseph Health system, which has a second hospital in Laguna Beach.

Orange County Register: https://www.ocregister.com/2019/11/05/mission-hospitals-80-million-cancer-institute-opens-nov-7-in-mission-viejo/.
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