MD Anderson to build new outpatient center in West Houston
MD Anderson News Release August 20, 2015
MD Anderson News Release 08/20/2015
With the approval of The University of Texas System Board of Regents today, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is one step closer to developing and building its own outpatient diagnostic and treatment center to better serve the growing communities of West Houston and beyond.
The new center will be the first free-standing clinical building that MD Anderson has constructed outside the Texas Medical Center.
The center will be built on 36 acres of land owned by MD Anderson, near the intersection of Interstate 10 and Highway 6. When it opens to patients in 2018, the building will be approximately 175,000 square feet.
“It’s great to get the green light from the Board of Regents to start work on a new facility that will give the residents of West Houston and the surrounding region even greater access to MD Anderson specialty services, care, research and diagnostics,” said Thomas Burke, M.D., executive vice president, MD Anderson Cancer Network®. “Our mission to end cancer charges us with expanding and adapting programs that best reflect and respond to the needs of our patients, and this new center demonstrates that commitment.”
There are three MD Anderson patient care facilities located in West Houston.
MD Anderson in Katy offers medical, surgical and radiation oncology; chemotherapy infusion; pharmacy; pain management; and nutrition services as well as other supportive care. It is located about six miles from the new center and employs about 90 physicians, mid-level providers, nurses, phlebotomists, radiation therapists and support staff.
MD Anderson Diagnostic Imaging Center in West Houston opened one year ago providing a full spectrum of laboratory and imaging services, on-site radiology interpretation, and breast screening. It is about one mile from the new center and about 30 radiologists, nurses, diagnostic imaging technologists and other staff support the center.
MD Anderson in Memorial City is a clinical office space that gives patients convenient access to see specialized surgeons for follow-up appointments and consultations. The surgeries may be performed at MD Anderson in the Texas Medical Center or at other area hospitals, but patients can see their doctors before and after their procedures closer to home. The office is about five miles from where the new center will be located.
In other Board of Regents action today impacting MD Anderson outreach, the board approved a first-ever clinical collaboration agreement between MD Anderson and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, which will include construction of an outpatient cancer center on UTMB’s campus in League City.
The newly approved MD Anderson outpatient center is expected to open by 2018 and encompass about 135,000 square feet. It will complement UTMB’s inpatient facility on the same campus.
MD Anderson currently has a clinical care center in Bay Area (Nassau Bay) that offers a variety of medical, surgical and radiation oncology services. It is about eight miles from the new UTMB League City campus.
As MD Anderson’s first clinical care center to open outside of the Texas Medical Center, the center in Bay Area opened in 2007 with two medical oncologists and one radiation oncologist. Today, it offers medical, surgical, radiation oncology services; chemotherapy infusion; laboratory and pharmacy services, and employs 11 physicians and 67 nurses, mid-level providers, phlebotomists, radiation technologists and support staff.
In addition to MD Anderson regional locations in Bay Area, Katy and Memorial City, there also are care centers in Sugar Land and The Woodlands.
The first Houston area location opened about 15 years ago, offering only radiation oncology services, and the outreach has grown at a steady pace. Last year more than 4,000 newly diagnosed patients were treated in the institution’s regional system, which accounts for more than 15 percent of MD Anderson’s new patient volume.