Cancer Care in Comfort

New center aims to ease anxieties with personal touch

BY RHODA AMON
Newsday Staff Writer
June 11, 2006

Madeline Piurek enters the sunlit atrium at noon. She confidently passes an indoor garden of rocks and bamboo trees under a big skylight, registers at the reception desk and waits for her room assignment.

Once settled comfortably in a private room, Piurek and her son, Philip, 23, who usually accompanies her, watch a DVD movie they've brought from home. "This is my hotel room," she says with a smile.

Piurek is not in a hotel. She goes three Fridays a month for four hours of chemotherapy at the Monter Cancer Center, a state-of-the-art, all-in-one outpatient facility converted from the World War II-era Sperry Gyroscope plant in Lake Success

One of the first

Piurek, 50, who was diagnosed with lymphoma 19 months ago, was one of the first patients accommodated at the center when it was opened in April by the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Armed with two or three movies, a newspaper, lunch and Philip for company, she manages to remain cheerful through the long afternoon. Other patients come for treatments lasting up to eight hours.

"My kids gave me a whole bunch of movies for Mother's Day, and this is the only chance I get to view them," said Piurek, a Port Washington parking enforcement agent who continues to rise at 5 a.m. for work, manage her home and keep a positive attitude toward her ailment. "Everybody here goes out of their way to make me comfortable."

"The peaceful, sedate atmosphere eases tensions and anxiety," said Dr. Steven Allen, associate chief of hematology, who is treating Puirek.

That kind of comfort soon will be offered to twice as many patients. Construction of a 20,000-square-foot addition to the current 37,000-square-foot center is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed in 2007. The center now houses the outpatient oncology programs formerly based at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. The second phase will accommodate Long Island Jewish Medical Center's outpatient services.

With cancer cases expected to increase more than 20 percent by 2010, the free-standing outpatient facility has become a nationwide trend. Beyond that, the North Shore-LIJ Health System is planning to expand the Center for Advanced Medicine to a 450,000-square-foot "medical mall," anchored by the Monter center and offering one-stop shopping for an array of outpatient services.

The Monter building has had a varied career. After World War II, it was the first headquarters of the United Nations while the Manhattan site was under construction. Often threatened with demolition to make way for developments, the building housed a series of defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin.

A medical design team saw the advantage to the cancer center of the warehouse building's three 120-foot-long skylights bringing sunlight into an otherwise drab space. More than 50 bamboo trees were planted in the main entrance to provide a relaxing outdoor-indoor space for incoming outpatients.

For clients such as Piurek, it's the privacy that matters. Most formerly got chemotherapy in a large hospital room with 18 chairs in a row. "There was really no privacy - if they talked with their health provider or a family member, everyone nearby could hear them," said Karen Gleason, assistant nurse manager, who moved to the center from North Shore "along with our whole ninth floor."

The center accommodates 60 to 85 patients a day in 32 treatment stations equipped with TVs and other amenities. Textured-glass windows provide the calming illusion of falling water.

About 125 patients are treated daily, including those who come for examinations or consultations with doctors who have offices in the building. There are 23 consultation and examination rooms, along with a patient education center and various social work and support services.

Many experts under one roof

Bringing under one roof physicians with different expertise who can share their knowledge is a big advantage of the all-in-one facility, said Dr. Vincent Vinciguerra, chief of North Shore University Hospital's Don Monti Division of Medical Oncology and Division of Hematology.

Vinciguerra, who joined North Shore in the 1970s, said he's seen monumental changes in cancer treatment. While a cancer diagnosis still can be devastating, he said, coordinating the most advanced services within a few miles' radius "reduces anxiety and allows patients to focus more of their energy on healing and recovery."

Though the center doesn't have a cafeteria, there are two areas where patients can get free snacks and a cafe area with vending machines and tables, Gleason said.

Piurek said last week's session at Monter went smoothly. Philip picked up turkey sandwiches at a deli and they lunched together and watched two movies, "Rent" and "Where the Heart Is." By 5 p.m., she was unplugged and ready to go home to her husband, William, and two other grown children, but she didn't expect to cook dinner for the family.

"On Fridays we usually get take-out," she said.

Copyright (c) 2006, Newsday, Inc.

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