Geneva hospital seeks to enhance cancer center

Delnor Hospital wants to renovate and expand the cancer treatment center on its campus at 300 S. Randall Road, Geneva.

It filed an application Nov. 23 with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, seeking permission to add a second radiology room to the free-standing Raymond G. Scott Cancer Care Center. Delnor also wants to move infusion treatments out of the main hospital building and into the Scott Center, and start offering brachytherapy (implantation of radioactive “seeds”) there, according to the application. The application is available at hfsrb.illinois.gov/Apps/2011-11-23%2011-108%20APPLICATION.pdf.

It expects to spend $19.9 million for the work, and pay for it with cash and securities, not a loan, according to the application. Half of that would be for new construction.

Whether it will still be called the Raymond G. Scott Cancer Care Center remains to be seen. Laura Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the hospital, Friday said she could not answer that, nor questions about when it would like to start construction and how it is paying for the work, because the project “is still in the early stages.” Jacobs said Delnor might be able to provide more information after the application is considered by the state board next year.

The application refers to it as the Delnor Comprehensive Care Center.

Delnor's contract with its current radiology treatment provider ends in January, and it doesn't expect to renew it, according to its application. Instead, an oncology services medical practice will move into the Scott Center, bringing its 5,870 annual infusion treatments with it.

The Scott Center, which opened in 1996, was primarily designed for radiation treatments. The building is east of the hospital and south of the Delnor Health and Wellness Center.

The expanded center would also offer education, support and preventive services for cancer patients and their families, in keeping with new American College of Surgeons' accreditation standards expected to be implemented in 2012. Those call for services such as genetic, nutrition and financial counseling, on-site psychosocial distress screening and an enhanced cancer registry.

In the application, Delnor states that it considered closing the center and consolidating the services at Central DuPage Hospital's practically new cancer treatment center in Warrenville. However, it felt that was too far for patients to travel, as most of the current cancer patients using Delnor's facility come from the western side of St. Charles, plus Batavia and Geneva, as well as Elburn and Maple Park. Furthermore, the Warrenville facility would have to be expanded to accommodate the increased volume, according to the application.

Delnor and Central DuPage health systems merged in 2011.

Delnor expects the number of cancer diagnoses in the Delnor/CDH service area to rise by 15 percent between 2010 and 2015, primarily due to the aging of the population, it said in its application.