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Second satellite campus opens, with more to come
The new, light-filled cancer center in Milford offers patients and staff views of nature.
A brand new cancer center at Milford Regional Medical Center (MRMC) allows patients in the region 35 miles southwest of Boston to receive Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) oncology services closer to home.
This expansion – the second satellite facility to open in two years – is aimed at serving the increasing number of adult cancer patients and expanding access to DF/BWCC services throughout New England.
"This center embodies our vision that our cancer care needs to be embedded in the communities where patients are," says Dana-Farber President Edward J. Benz Jr., MD. "We need to offer the best, state-of-the-art care to as many people as possible."
At the 54,000-square-foot center in Milford that opened in January, Dana-Farber provides medical oncology and chemotherapy infusions, the Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization delivers radiation therapy, and diagnostic imaging is available through the MRMC. The number of chemotherapy bays has tripled from Milford's previous cancer unit, and patients now can take advantage of a dedicated dietitian and social worker. Clinicians, patients, and administrators offered advice on building design, colors, and other features, resulting in an open, airy space with views of the outdoors and a healing garden.
A primary goal of Dana-Farber's strategic plan is to significantly increase clinical capacity by expanding beyond the Institute's main locale. In addition to the satellite at Milford and the oncology clinic at Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain, plans are under way for two additional satellite centers in the next two years, one in Londonderry, N.H., and the other in Weymouth, Mass., southwest of Boston.
"You can't find better people," says Kathy Davis, a patient at the Milford center. "The staff and patients here are like family to one another."
Read more about Dana-Farber's expansion efforts.
