CLEVELAND – The raising of the last structural beam atop the University Hospitals Cancer Hospital will take place during a “Topping Out” ceremony on Wednesday, May 7 at 1:15 p.m. The placing of the final steel beam, along with a pine tree and American flag, on top of the Cancer Hospital is a symbolic tradition of good fortune in the construction of a new building and represents a major step forward for the 120-bed freestanding hospital and UH’s $229 million investment into cancer care.
Scheduled to open in May 2011, the UH Cancer Hospital will be located on the campus of UH Case Medical Center and will house all of the UH Ireland Cancer Center’s inpatient and outpatient services under one roof. Designed to optimize patient care, the 375,000-square-foot facility will triple the square footage that cancer services currently encompass in seven different locations at UH Case Medical Center.
“The topping out marks an important step towards the completion of the Cancer Hospital, one of the major components of University Hospitals’ $1.2 billion Vision 2010 strategic plan,” says Fred C. Rothstein, MD, President of UH Case Medical Center. “Vision 2010 has strengthened our 142-year history of caring for our community and underscored our unwavering commitment to our timeless mission – To Heal. To Teach. To Discover. and the Cancer Hospital is an instrumental part of this.”
The ceremony will include remarks by Dr. Rothstein, Stanton Gerson, MD, Director of the UH Ireland Cancer Center, and Nathan Levitan, MD, President of the UH Ireland Cancer Center. Local news personalities will sign the beam, along with UH employees and special guests, including famed “Funky Winkerbean” cartoonist Tom Batiuk. The 20-foot beam then will be raised high above Euclid Avenue and put into place.
“Our Cancer Hospital will be the region’s first free-standing cancer hospital and one of an elite group in the nation,” said Dr. Gerson. “Our facility will provide cancer patients in Northeast Ohio a high-level tertiary-care hospital devoted to proper diagnosis, treatment planning and innovative therapies, including surgery, radiation therapy and oncology care.”
The UH Cancer Hospital will be home to the latest treatment protocols and the most advanced diagnostic, therapeutic and information technologies. The patient-centered design will accommodate overnight stays by family, inpatient exercise rooms, green space and a healing garden. Clinical care areas will be organized to treat specific patient populations and the design also incorporates space for clinical trials, diagnostics, outpatient and inpatient treatment, surgery, patient education programs, radiation oncology, infusion therapy and teaching space.
“Cancer affects every aspect of a patient’s life and the new Cancer Hospital will combine, under one roof, the most advanced cancer treatments with a cache of therapies designed to enhance the mental and emotional well-being of our patients,” said Dr. Levitan. “This Topping Out moves us closer to the opening of this state-of-the-art facility, which promises to transform cancer care in Northeast Ohio and beyond.”
The Topping Out ceremony is the third for University Hospitals’ numerous building projects that are part of the health system’s Vision 2010 strategic plan. The $1.2 billion plan is the largest expansion in UH’s history and includes the UH Ahuja Medical Center at Chagrin Highlands, the Quentin & Elisabeth Alexander Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, the Center for Emergency Medicine at UHCMC, the UH Twinsburg Health Center and the UH Concord Health Center.