World-class care for better health and improving lives is how Dr. Bill Putnam describes the mission of Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center.
He was the Rotary Club of Jacksonville’s keynote speaker Monday at the Omni Hotel.
“We’ve been embraced by the community,” said Putnam.
That was evident Sunday when Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad Khan presented at $1 million gift to Hugh Greene, president and CEO of Baptist Health. Combined with matching funds, the donation will create a $2.25 million endowment for breast cancer prevention, treatment and care.
When the cancer treatment and research center opens in 2018 at Baptist Health’s Downtown campus, it will be the fourth of six planned centers that will replicate the care available at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Putnam said.
There also are centers in in Gilbert, Ariz., and Berkeley Heights and Camden, N.J.
Jacksonville was chosen, Putnam said, due to Baptist Health’s scope of care and facilities and MD Anderson’s plan to establish regional cancer centers that can serve about 3 million people.
“We’ll take the intellectual property that exists at MD Anderson together with Baptist Health’s patient care excellence and build on those strengths,” Putnam said.
“Jacksonville will be the center for the Southeast,” said Greene.
Putnam and other physicians have been treating patients for 12 months at an MD Anderson outpatient facility at Baptist Health. About 2,000 people have been treated to date, he said.
When the new building is complete, the center will comprise more than 300,000 square feet, plus a 600-space parking garage for patients and staff.
Greene said the regional impact when the cancer center is combined with the University of Florida Proton Therapy Institute and Mayo Clinic Jacksonville “will put Jacksonville more on the map in terms of a health-care destination.”
Putnam described the MD Anderson model as “surgeons, oncologists, nurse navigators and chaplains all under one roof.”
He said he has a self-serving interest in bringing the top cancer treatment talent to Jacksonville because sooner or later, everyone becomes a patient.
“I want to have someone here I trust for my care and my family’s care,” said Putnam.
“We will not be measured by the buildings we build,” he added. “But by the patients’ lives we touch and the care we provide.”
Greene said a national recruiting effort is underway to bring the finest cancer specialists to Jacksonville and when the center opens, about 600 new jobs will be created with salaries above $100,000 per year.
“And that’s without any city incentives,” Greene said.
The Baptist MD Anderson inpatient treatment and research facility is scheduled to open in mid-2018.
Greene said the construction cost is fluctuating.
“If you asked me a month ago, I would have said about $160 million. Now it’s about $170 million,” he said.
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