Construction Updates

We broke ground for the new Cancer Care Center at CMMC a little more than a year ago. Now, with just four months to go until the scheduled April 2022 opening, we are getting a better look at what patients, team members and the general public will see from outside the facility. One of the major highlights of the design is a healing garden on the Holland Street side of the facility. The garden will feature a walking path which can be seen here, as well as a short wall that can be used for seating. The garden will be surrounded by tall cedars once landscaping takes place in the spring.

Also pictured is the northwest corner of the building where the team member lounge will be located.

With the snow and colder temperatures, most of the work is taking place inside these days. The second floor is 95% complete and the first floor is about 65% ready. The Cancer Care Center will provide convenient, centralized access to the system’s superior outpatient oncology services, along with state-of-the-art technology, including new linear accelerators critical for radiation therapy. It will also be home to the Central Maine Cancer Institute, providing multispecialty team-based care.

We continue to get glimpses of what the completed Cancer Care Center at CMMC will look like when it opens next spring. The structures for the infusion bays and nursing station are up and ready for finishing touches. We can also see what will be the second floor lobby, looking down on the first floor. Looking outside, work is being completed for the stone wall that will surround the Center’s Healing Garden. The project is now more than 60 % completed and on track to open on April 1. The Cancer Care Center at CMMC will provide convenient, centralized access to the system’s superior outpatient oncology services, along with state-of-the-art technology, including new linear accelerators, which are critical for radiation therapy. It will also be home to the Central Maine Cancer Institute, providing multispecialty, team-based care.

One of the hallmarks of the new Cancer Care Center at Central Maine Medical Center is its ability to accommodate the latest technology. Part of the new 52,000-square-foot facility will house two new state-of-the-art Varian linear accelerators critical for radiation therapy. They are more accurate and less invasive, thereby decreasing side effects. There are only six of these in Maine and two for our Cancer Care Center are the latest models. Here workers are installation a linear accelerator base frame.

Central Maine Healthcare Interim President and CEO Steven G. Littleson, DBA, FACHE, and Chief of Oncology and Associate Chief of Surgical Care Hector Tarraza, MD, recently inspected the infusion center of the Cancer Care Center at Central Maine Medical Center. The exterior walls have yet to be installed but already visible in the soffit above them is

a nod to the role of genetics in cancer care. Its curves represent the double helix of a DNA molecule and will be echoed in the building’s exterior glass wall. Construction of the $33.2 million project is on track to be completed early next year.