Oncology services to expand at TMH

Planners hope to raise $14 million in donations to help fund the projects.
WARREN -- Forum Health will break ground in February on a state-of-the-art radiation oncology department for Trumbull Memorial Hospital, part of its five-year, $102 million expansion in Youngstown and Warren.
The expansion projects have been planned for years, but Forum began releasing construction details and architectural renderings for the $17 million in Warren projects this week.
Plans for Trumbull Memorial include enlarging the hospital's emergency department by nearly 40 percent, including a Level III trauma center, a chest pain center and a decontamination facility. Construction in that department is set to begin in the spring.
Forum also expects to spend $70 million on improvements at Northside Medical Center and Tod Children's Hospital in Youngstown and about $15 million at Beeghly Medical Center in Boardman.
Forum's three-pronged funding plan includes philanthropy. Planners hope to raise about $14 million in donations, with $4 million of that to go into the Trumbull improvements.
Operating revenue and accumulated capital will also help to fund the work, and Forum will sell hospital revenue bonds.
Details
The new oncology center will be constructed across East Market Street from Trumbull Memorial Hospital in a building that now houses Social Security Administration offices. Forum bought the building and will eventually occupy all three floors.
A new footbridge will be constructed across East Market Street to connect the hospital to its new cancer treatment facility. The bridge will extend from the second floor of TMH to the third floor of the oncology center, located at the corner of East Market and Laird Avenue Northeast.
The building will be considered an extension of the hospital, said Kevin M. Spiegel, chief operating officer at TMH, and there is space there for additional expansion.
He said a substantial part of the project cost is wrapped up in new radiation technology designed to maximize treatment of cancer while minimizing the effect on healthy tissue.
Radiation oncology will be on the first floor of the new building, the regional oncology center will be on the second floor, and physicians' offices will be on the third.
Goals
"The goal of the oncology center is to support the needs of the whole patient and the patient's family," Spiegel said. "We want to create a caring, warm atmosphere."
Spiegel said the decision to expand oncology and emergency services in Trumbull County was based on demographic research that demonstrated a growing need for those types of health care.
The emergency room will be expanded to allow for treatment of up to 100,000 patients a year, double the facility's current average of about 50,000 annually. It will include a heliport to accommodate emergency helicopters plus six ambulance bays.
"This plan not only deals with now, it looks into the future," Spiegel explained. "It really addresses the need for expansion in the future."
vinarsky@vindy.com