An Augusta, Maine, hospital is planning a $36 million expansion of its cancer treatment center, anticipating that the region it serves will see more cancer cases in the coming years, Bangor Daily News reports.
MaineGeneral is proposing an 28,000-square-foot expansion to its Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care on Old Belgrade Road in Augusta, according to a letter of intent MaineGeneral President and CEO Chuck Hays submitted to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
The proposal to grow the 15-year-old cancer center comes as it’s provided more new cancer patient consults than it was initially designed to provide, and it expects central Maine to see more cancer cases in the coming years.
The expansion would add 12 new exam rooms, 10 infusion chairs and an open-access clinic to reduce emergency room visits, Hays wrote in his letter announcing MaineGeneral’s intent to apply for state approval for the expansion.
The health care provider is pitching the facility expansion, which will allow it to treat more cancer patients, after a consultant it hired predicted a 6 percent increase in the number of cancer cases the Augusta center will need to treat between now and 2026. Read more.
