Delnor cancer center expansion close to city approval

The Geneva City Council appears poised to approve Cadence Health’s plan to redo the radiation therapy center at Delnor Hospital.

Monday night the council, meeting as a committee of the whole, voted unanimously to recommend revisions to the hospital’s campus plan. It will vote on the recommendation at its next council meeting. Aldermen had no questions about the plan.

Cadence received the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board’s permission for the project Feb. 28 in a 7-1 vote. Only board member John Hayes objected. “Basically I am wondering about the need for this facility since you (Delnor and Central DuPage Hospital) are now combined and you’re (Delnor) only 11.1 miles away and Central DuPage has a new cancer center and also has almost a half a billion dollars in projects over the last five years,” said Hayes, according to a transcript of the hearing.

Luke McGuinness, Cadence’s chief executive officer, told the board, however, that CDH’s cancer treatment center in Warrenville was built before the merger of the hospitals, designed to serve only the then-CDH market, and is operating nearly at capacity.

Under the $19.95 million plan, the Raymond Scott Cancer Care Center at Delnor, which is about 9,000 square feet, will be enlarged 30,000 square feet. It will receive a second radiology room. It will get areas for brachytherapy (implantation of radioactive seeds) and infusion treatments, practices now done at the main hospital or in other offices. On the state application, the project is referred to as the Delnor Comprehensive Cancer Center, but Cadence has not announced any name change. The Scott Center opened in 1996.