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Business & Tech

Upper Chesapeake Unveils Cancer Center Plans

Construction is expected to begin within the next year.

Upper Chesapeake Health President and CEO Lyle Sheldon unveiled plans at Tuesday’s town Board of Commissioners work session to begin building an oncology center at the s within a year.

Sheldon said the proposed 75,000 square foot cancer treatment center, which would be located on the west side of the campus, must first be approved by the Maryland Health Care Commission and town of Bel Air.

See photos for plans.

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“Much of the [cancer] care is actually delivered outside of the county and we think by what we’re doing here, probably 85 percent of the oncology-related [treatment] can be delivered right here in Harford County in a multi-disciplinary location,” he told three of the commissioners and several department heads.

Also included in the construction plans are additional parking lots and a “right-in, right-out” access from Maryland Route 24, which would undergo a two-lane expansion near the hospital. The new street must become a town road if it is approved because it connects directly to Route 24. There are not plans for a new traffic light.

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“We think when we look at the life cycle of Upper Chesapeake Health, this is really one of those signature services,” Sheldon said of the oncology center, adding that the goal is “to try to eliminate or minimize the length of time from diagnosis and treatment.”

The building plans, which are being led by Frederick Ward Associates, include a 115-space parking lot for patients and employees underneath the oncology center to make up for the lost parking spaces from construction.

There would also be a rooftop garden and multiple connections to the campus’s primary inpatient building, a 31-space “convenience” lot in front of the new building and a 377-space lot, primarily for "team members," on the far south side of the campus.

FWA President Craig Ward added that, “the main entrance and emergency room would still be the major vehicular connections on the campus.”

Sheldon was excited about the different options the building could provide.

“Not only will we have physician services in there; medical oncology, thoracic surgery, general surgery, breast surgery, but also radiation oncology … infusion therapy, pharmacy, imaging capability, laboratory,” Sheldon said.

Ward said all other project construction should be completed before the two-story cancer center’s groundbreaking.

“The [Route] 24 improvement actually is almost a two-lane widening of 24 from above MacPhail Road, almost all the way to Ring Factory,” he said. “All that’s scheduled to be finished before the cancer center starts construction in 2012.”

Commissioners Robert Reier, Edward Hopkins and Robert Preston all seemed to be in favor of the project.

“We’re certainly going in the right direction,” Preston said.

Hopkins added that it was a “great concept.”

The final steps in town approval begins soon.

“We’re going to be submitting the site plan to the planning commission next week,” said Ward, who expects a decision at the April 7 meeting. “And we’ll be holding a community meeting over at the hospital [March 22 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.]”

The construction on the cancer center is planned for completion in December 2013.

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