‘Long overdue.’ UNC Rex cancer center leaves tight quarters for spacious new home
The cancer center at UNC Rex hospital has long been cramped. The waiting rooms were crowded, doctors were scattered across the hospital campus, and many support services for patients and their families were discontinued years ago because of lack of space.
That all changes Tuesday with the opening of a new $65 million cancer center across Blue Ridge Road from the hospital.
The new center is nearly three times the size of the old and will bring doctors from different disciplines, who treat cancer with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, under one roof for the first time.
It also has what’s called the Quality of Life Clinic, where patients and their families can get psychiatric, palliative and rehabilitation services and soon massage therapy and acupuncture.
“It’s a space where no matter the person’s diagnosis, the goal is to help them feel the best they can during their cancer care,” said Emmeline Madsen, who is coordinating the move to the new center.
The old cancer center opened in 1987 and had become “very outdated,” Madsen said. “This building is long overdue,” she said, as she gave a tour Monday while doctors, nurses and other medical staff made themselves familiar with their new surroundings and prepared for Tuesday morning’s opening.
Madsen made special note of the paintings, murals and other original artworks throughout the building, all donated. A mural by Raleigh artist Dare Coulter in the Quality of Life Center was commissioned by businessmen and former NFL football players Terrence and Torry Holt and includes an image of their mother, Ojetta, who was diagnosed with lymphoma when the brothers were young.
The art, space and natural light of the new center will be a comfort to people, said Mary Mullins of Raleigh, who was treated for colorectal cancer at Rex 25 years ago and served on the center’s Patient and Family Advisory Council.
“I think that sometimes if you’re in a cramped space, you’re more likely to focus so much more on your own condition,” Mullins said. “Whereas, if you’re in a beautiful, spacious area, with paintings and artwork, there are things that take that focus off your own health.”
The center’s third floor is where patients will receive chemotherapy infusions. The old center had 32 infusion bays, where patients must sit for several hours at a time. Sharon Delaney McCloud, who was treated for breast cancer there five years ago, said patients coveted the few chairs that had a window or natural light.
”Jockeying for the right chemo chair was a thing,” McCloud said.
Now nearly all the bays have large windows. There are a handful of private infusion rooms, for those who want them, but most of the big chairs are out where patients can see each other and socialize.
“Cancer already makes you feel alone,” Madsen said. “You don’t want to be put in a room by yourself.”
Rex cancer center has room to grow
Most cancer services in the Triangle are provided by either UNC or Duke Health, which has a large cancer center at Duke Raleigh Hospital and a women’s cancer center across the street from the new Rex building.
UNC Rex sees about 3,600 new cancer patients a year and handles as many as 19,000 patient visits. Rex has smaller cancer centers in Wake and Johnston counties, but about 40% of its oncology patients come to the main hospital in Raleigh.
Madsen said those numbers will grow; about 20% of the new building is empty, available for future growth and new specialists who will offer services not available at Rex now.
The cancer center is the third large institution that Rex has completed in the last five years. Last fall, it opened UNC Rex Holly Springs, a full-service hospital with 50 inpatient beds, a 24-bed emergency department, operating rooms and a maternity center.
And in 2017, Rex opened the N.C. Heart and Vascular Hospital, an eight-story $235 million building attached to the main hospital. With 114 inpatient beds, the heart hospital consolidated cardiac functions that were scattered around the Rex campus.
The cancer center has no inpatient beds. That’s because about 95% of cancer treatments can now be done on an outpatient basis, Madsen said.
The four-story, 144,000-square-foot building was built on land at the corner of Blue Ridge and Macon Pond roads that has been used for employee parking. Rex eventually plans two more office buildings and two parking decks on the site.
The development includes a new road off Blue Ridge, parallel to Macon Pond. Because it built the road, UNC Rex got to name it and chose Hopeful Drive.
But if you need directions, don’t bother looking for Hopeful Drive, which doesn’t appear on any maps yet. The center’s address is 2901 Blue Ridge Road.
This story was originally published February 28, 2022 at 3:49 PM.
