Regional News/South: Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center now open, and other news

DALLAS—Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas opened March 26. The 467,000-square-foot outpatient facility, part of Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas, is designed to offer comprehensive services from initial diagnosis through post-recovery, according to a Baylor news release.

The cancer center is part of a $350 million project on the Baylor Dallas campus that includes a dedicated cancer hospital scheduled to open in 2013 and a new parking garage. The 10-story building includes clinics focused solely on a specific type of cancer, such as cancers of the breast, blood, lung, liver, pancreas, head and neck, bone and skin among others. The center plans to open this summer an avenue for patients to participate in clinical trials, particularly Phase I trials, through its Innovative Clinical Trials Center. “Providing comprehensive care means looking out for the well-being of the mind and spirit as well,” said Donna Bowers, vice president of oncology for Baylor and a breast cancer survivor who oversaw the design of the new cancer center, in the release. “That's why we have put a lot of effort into developing innovative support resources that can help ease the road to cancer survivorship,” Bowers said.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Children's Hospital of Alabama recently completed exterior work on a 740,000-square-foot facility, set to open in summer 2012. The Birmingham pediatric hospital said its new 12-story expansion marks the largest healthcare construction project in the state's history. Construction began in May 2009, the interior is expected to be complete in February 2012, and the facility is slated for patient occupancy in August 2012. The new building will be known as the Benjamin Russell Hospital for Children. Patient rooms will be private and will feature sleeping areas for family members. The hospital commemorated the latest phase of construction with a “topping off” ceremony, during which a final beam, containing signatures of employees, children and their families, was raised to the building's roof. “The completion of the exterior of our expansion represents a tremendous milestone in the growth of Children's and comes just as we are set to celebrate our centennial in June,” CEO Mike Warren said in the release. “Right now, it's like a beehive of activity where all the work will be going on inside. In just a few short months, though, we'll be opening the doors to this magnificent facility that will provide care for the children of Alabama and surrounding states far into our second 100 years.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Norton Healthcare was chosen to receive the 2011 NQF Quality Healthcare Award from the National Quality Forum. Now in its 18th year, the award, given in partnership with Modern Healthcare, recognizes organizations that have improved quality through public reporting, coordinating care across settings, measuring performance and other means, NQF said in a news release. NQF's main criterion for this year's award was that the winning organization should provide care that is coordinated and patient-centered, Janet Corrigan, NQF's president and CEO, said in the release. “Norton Healthcare's leadership provides an ideal model for other healthcare systems working to raise the bar of health system performance to achieve safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable care,” Corrigan said. All of Norton's four hospitals use a single, enterprisewide electronic medical record, and the system publicly reports performance data on its website for hundreds of quality indicators. In addition, Norton was one of four sites chosen for the Brookings-Dartmouth Accountable Care Organization pilot project, according to the release.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order that created a commission to consider whether government-run hospitals in the state are in the best interest of taxpayers and also to recommend a new model for Florida's healthcare safety net, according to a news release from Scott's office. Scott also ordered the commission to review sale and lease proposals of public hospitals. Scott, the former head of hospital company Columbia/HCA, named eight commission members who must submit a report with their findings by Jan. 1, 2012. He set the commission to expire no later than March 1, 2012, unless extended at his discretion as governor.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—The American Medical Group Association has moved into its new headquarters at 1 Prince St. in Alexandria, Va., the former home of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, which it purchased last March for approximately $8 million. The 23,000-square-foot building will replace the 12,000 square feet worth of space the AMGA previously occupied in four Duke Street townhouse offices—in two different buildings—which the organization is in the process of selling. The AMGA's membership consists of 385 medical groups in which some 117,000 physicians practice. That includes 22 groups, with 4,200 doctors, that have joined so far in 2011.