Smilow Cancer Hospital set to open Monday
Richard C. Levin, president of Yale University, speaks at the opening ceremony.
Posted: 22 October 2009
NEW HAVEN — Joel E. Smilow was talking about his four grandchildren and envisioning the day, 40 or 50 years from now, when they might receive a phone call.
The call would say “we’ve got an interesting development,” said Smilow, “that there are so few people getting cancer that the hospital is working way under capacity and we want to talk to you about alternative ways of using the space.”
A worthwhile dream. In the meantime, there’s work to be done.
That work is set to begin Monday, when the Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven opens its doors to patients for the first time. The new hospital will bring oncology patients from Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Yale School of Medicine to a single building specifically designed for cancer care.
An opening ceremony for the center was held Wednesday afternoon, drawing hundreds, including hospital administrators and staff, state lawmakers, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and Gov. M. Jodi Rell.
Smilow is the major benefactor behind the $467 million cancer center, a 14-story, 168-bed facility attached to the main hospital’s atrium and adjacent to the Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.
A Yale alumnus, Smilow is former chief executive of Playtex Products Inc., and has also provided major support for the university’s athletics.
Though he made his commitment at the threshold of rocky financial times for the nation, Smilow said he never regretted the investment.
“There was no point in the two years when I said if I knew then what I know now that I wouldn’t have done this,” he said.
About 400 people gathered for the opening ceremony, held at the new hospital entrance. The celebration featured a performance by the Trinity Boys Choir. Outdoor space heaters were in use, but were hardly needed in the warm afternoon.
The opening is the culmination of a five-year plan and 35 months of construction, said Joseph R. Crespo, chairman of the Yale-New Haven Hospital board of directors.
Crespo said the new hospital would “change the whole landscape of cancer treatment,” drawing patients from “across the street and across the nation.”
“I believe we’re standing at the doorstep of something really great,” said Rell, a breast cancer survivor. “It’s not the building that will save lives here, but it’s a building that will make it possible to save lives.”
“On a personal note, as a cancer survivor myself, I’m glad to see these doors open,” she said.
Both Rell and DeStefano, who challenged Rell in the most recent gubernatorial race and is seeking re-election as mayor in November, mentioned the new hospital’s economic impact.
“For those of us dealing with the economic downturn, this is even more impressive,” Rell said. “It’s a testament to your will.
“I see an economic engine, for the city, the region and the state,” she said.
“I hope the city and the hospital have come to know each other a little better as a result of this process,” DeStefano said.
As well as inpatient beds, Smilow Cancer Hospital includes outpatient treatment rooms, 12 operating rooms, infusion suites, diagnostic imaging services, a women’s cancer center, and a floor for diagnostic radiology and radiation oncology. Amenities include a rooftop garden on the seventh floor.
“This hospital will allow us to provide the best state-of-the-art care in a setting that is beautiful and comfortable, and I think we’ll be able to attract physicians,” said Dr. Robert J. Alpern, dean of the Yale School of Medicine. “We will be educating the next generation of clinicians and researchers.”
“We need people who dedicate their lives to the notion of a disease-free world,” said Bishop Theodore L. Brooks, pastor of the Beulah Heights First Pentecostal Church, who delivered an invocation.
Brooks said he believed that one day the world would be disease free, “but for now, we have the Smilow Cancer Hospital.”
Submitted by Jeff Kurz on Thu, 10/22/2009 - 12:15
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