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MILFORD
Last January, Janice Mohondro went against the advice of her family and friends, who insisted Boston's hospitals were the only option for receiving top-notch cancer treatment.
"I wanted to be close to home," said Mohondro, a 47-year-old Bellingham resident. "It might not have had a radiation program, but without a doubt I knew Milford Regional Medical Center was the place for me."
Eight months later, the tumor in Mohondro's breast has been successfully removed and she is in remission.
And now more patients like her can get a broader range of cancer treatment close to home.
Tomorrow, the Milford hospital will open a treatment center in collaboration with Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital. As the second Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center satellite, the Milford facility is part of a growing trend among city hospitals to expand their reach, bringing their services to more convenient locations for patients.
Last week, for example, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham was scheduled to kick off a $30 million expansion that includes a new emergency room and a permanent location for a state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging facility.
In Milford, the new cancer center will provide comprehensive services and progressive technology - including radiation. It is housed in a new 54,000-square-foot, two-story building on the medical center's campus, which sits at the intersection of routes 16 and 140, and will serve about 20 surrounding communities.
"We made a decision to partner with only a few community hospitals in Eastern Massachusetts. They were all expert hospitals and already had expert cancer hospitals," said Dr. Lawrence Shulman, director of network development for Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's. "In Milford, there were two oncologists we knew we would be proud to work with."
The oncologists are Dr. Michael Constantine and Mohondro's physician, Dr. Mona Kaddis. Both were employed by the Milford Regional Medical Center but have now been hired to work at the new cancer treatment facility, along with a staff of 40 medical and administrative workers.
Under the sharing arrangement at the new center, Dana-Farber will be in charge of medical oncology, Brigham and Women's will oversee radiation oncology, and Milford Regional will be responsible for providing diagnostic imaging and laboratory testing.
Milford Regional, which financed the $25 million construction project, is leasing space in the new building to the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center.
"This is a different type of arrangement than we've ever had before," said Shulman.
It is part of a larger plan set out by Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's to expand its technology and quality care by establishing a suburban presence.
The research giant opened a 13,000-square-foot satellite clinic in collaboration with Jamaica Plain's Faulkner Hospital in June 2006, and plans to begin construction of a third satellite cancer center at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth this year.
Led by Shulman, the satellite center initiative was launched to mitigate traffic congestion and general overcrowding in Boston's Longwood Medical Area, where the main cancer center is located. It also attempts to win back an increasing number of patients who, like Mohondro, are seeking treatment in suburban community hospitals and clinics.
"A year and a half ago the National Cancer Institute started an initiative encouraging research institutes to get cutting-edge technology into suburban communities," said Shulman.
Some urban hospitals are creating independent expansions to compete with existing suburban cancer centers, while others, like Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, are engaging in joint ventures with community hospitals.
"It's like bringing Boston out to Milford," said Constantine, one of the oncologists at the new cancer center.
"People shouldn't have to travel to a metropolis and pay $10 for parking to receive cancer treatment," he said. "Just going in and out is exhausting enough."
That's precisely why Mohondro chose Milford Regional a year ago.
"Now I hope everyone will realize what a great cancer center it has always been," she said.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
