AURORA | Physicians and staff members put in extra hours. Administrators added extra hours to the clinical schedule. The crew at the University of Colorado Cancer Center worked to stretch resources as far as possible.
That was already the situation when Dan Theodorescu accepted the post as UCCC director in late 2009. Before he officially moved into his role, Theodorescu was told the facility — already the largest specialized cancer center in Colorado — was likely to see a growth spurt relatively quickly. Shortly after Theodorescu started his official duties as director in 2010, the University of Colorado Hospital Foundation announced a campaign to raise $20 million in order to expand the resources and physical space of the specialized clinic.
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It didn’t take him long to see firsthand the causes behind the campaign.
“The Cancer Center has experience a tremendous amount of growth and patient volume, and this has presented tremendous challenges,” Theodorescu told a modest crowd gathered in the Anschutz Cancer Pavilion on May 24. “I’m very grateful to our medical colleagues for having done a tremendous job of managing this growth in the existing (building). Clinical hours were extended. Additional staff was added. Our physicians and medical staff were asked to go the extra mile on behalf of our patients.”
Those demands are about to become less onerous for the doctors and staff at the cancer center. This week, Theodorescu joined University of Colorado Health President Bruce Schroffel, Anschutz Medical Campus Vice Chancellor Lilly Marks, University of Colorado Hospital president and CEO John Harney and University of Colorado Hospital Foundation Board members Pete Coors and Steve Bangert to officially cut the ribbon on an expansion worth $20 million.
The ceremony formally celebrated the addition of about 40,000 square-feet of new space to the center, an expansion that includes a five-story buildout on the north side of the building. The new space includes a new radiation therapy vault, 18 new chemotherapy infusion bays and 13 new exam rooms; it brings the total size of the facility to about 148,000 square feet. The $20 million in funding is also slated to bring in from 200 to 250 new, full-time employees.
“This expansion will allow us to take more patients, it will also give more efficient access to services to continue to lead the charge in the fight against cancer,” Theodorescu told the crowd before mini-tours of the new exam rooms and infusion bays began. “This facility will allow us to recruit world-class oncologists of every specialty. This will enhance our multi-disciplinary, team-based care of cancer.”
Specifically, the expansion is set to increase the annual number of patients at the center by 60 percent, bringing the total to about 11,500 cancer patients treated at the facility in Aurora every year. That growth will add resources to the center’s radiation therapy, urologic oncology, bone marrow transplant, GI/Phase 1 cancer program and surgical oncology programs, as well as its infusion center.
The cancer center and its contributions have become a critical part of the sprawling medical campus at the site of the former Fitzsimons Army Base. In 2010 alone, for example, the center drew nearly 150,000 outpatient visits and completed cancer research worth about $130 million.
“I watched the University of Colorado Cancer Center open in 1986 to create a single setting for multi-disciplinary research and teaching, for treatment of the various stages and types of cancer,” said Lilly Marks, who’s worked for the University of Colorado since 1976. In 2010, Marks became the vice president for health affairs and executive vice chancellor at the Anschutz Medical Campus. “Over those same years, I’ve also seen the clinical services at the cancer center grow and change in scope and quality … They’ve flourished since we moved to the Anschutz Medical Campus in 2001. The cancer center was one of our first clinical services that located out here.”
Marks added that the arrival of the cancer center was a major milestone for the new campus in Aurora. As one of only 41 centers in the country designated by the National Cancer Institute, the expanded facility is a key part of the campus.
The $200 million that funded the expansion came in the form of private donations, largely a result of the “When You Hear the Words, ‘You Have Cancer’” campaign launched in 2010. Bruce Schroffel, former University of Colorado Hospital president and CEO and president of the new University of Colorado Health system, said the push for expansion wasn’t optional, considering the rapid growth and increasing demand at the facility.
“We had no choice in my mind but to meet the needs of our patients and our staff,” Schroffel said. “It really is a true comprehensive and collaborative environment … We provide a level of care that simply is not provided anywhere else in Colorado or the Rocky Mountain Region.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707