Greenwich Hospital last week unveiled its newly renovated Bendheim Cancer Center and announced an expanded partnership with Yale-New Haven Hospital that will increase collaboration between physicians and expand treatment options for patients, hospital officials said.
While Greenwich Hospital is already a member of the Yale-New Haven Health System from an administrative standpoint, the new collaboration with the Yale-New Haven”™s Smilow Cancer Hospital is “physician-driven,” said Frank A. Corvino, president and CEO of Greenwich Hospital.
“What we”™ve been able to do is provide services here that are provided in collaboration with our own specialists and the Yale Smilow specialists, and to really raise the bar on all of our services,” Corvino said. “Radiation oncology, medical oncology, surgical oncology ”“ all of these areas will benefit.”
Smilow Cancer Hospital is one of only 41 National Cancer Institute (NCI) Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the U.S.
More procedures will now be available at Bendheim Cancer Center, Corvino said, meaning patients who might have otherwise had to travel to New Haven to receive treatment can now get that same treatment in Greenwich.
The collaboration with Smilow Cancer Hospital means specialists in prostate and genitourinary, head and neck, gynecologic and brain cancers will be available for patient appointments immediately, with additional specialists set to arrive later this year.
“There will be specialists here from the Smilow Cancer Hospital on a regular basis, which means people don”™t have to leave the area to get great tertiary and quaternary cancer care,” Corvino said. “We”™ll also be able to offer clinical trials to some of our patients who qualify, which we haven”™t been able to do in the past.”
Bendheim Cancer Center reopened about three weeks ago following a six-month, $2.5 million renovation aimed at opening up the lobby and treatment areas, increasing functionality and making the environment more comfortable for patients, Corvino said.
Combined with $10 million the hospital has spent over the last couple of years to upgrade its radiation oncology center, “We”™ve invested about $12.5 million in allowing us to provide the very best,” Corvino said.
He said about 44 percent of Bendheim Cancer Center”™s patients hail from Westchester County, N.Y., adding that it is realistic to expect that number to increase with the new affiliation with Smilow.
Speaking Jan. 22 at the ceremonial reopening, Dickerman Hollister Jr., medical director of Bendheim Cancer Center, said the staff is excited to “strengthen our relationship with the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale and to bring new treatments, new physicians and new opportunities for patients in our community.”
Thomas J. Lynch Jr., director of the Yale Cancer Center and physician-in-chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital, said the partnership became a reality “because we know that the doctors and nurses who take care of patients at Bendheim Cancer (Center) here in Greenwich are the very best, and they”™re the partners we have for bringing the best care to people here at Greenwich Hospital.”
