Kaiser Permanente, the Oakland-based nonprofit that operates Orange County’s largest health plan, is expanding its cancer treatment options.
Kaiser is spending $25 million on a radiation oncology building on its La Palma Avenue campus in Anaheim that’s scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2015. The building will have 16,050 square feet of space and is the first phase of a planned third medical office building on the campus.
“We need to continue to provide local services for our members as we continue to grow,” said Karen Tejka, Kaiser’s area chief administrative officer, who works out of Anaheim.
She said Kaiser’s Orange County cancer patients currently have to go to Kaiser facilities in Los Angeles or Ontario for radiation oncology.
The radiation oncology building will open with two linear accelerators and have space for a third, Tejka said.
Linear accelerators provide radiation treatment for cancer.
There will also be a CT scanner, supporting examination rooms and administrative offices.
Links will be established between the radiation oncology building and Kaiser Anaheim’s existing cancer center, which includes adult and pediatric chemotherapy infusion treatment and an ambulatory cancer care center.
Kaiser’s campus also includes a 260-bed hospital that opened last year and has capacity for an additional 100 beds, depending on market conditions and growth.
The nonprofit operates Orange County’s largest HMO, with some 470,000 members.
Tejka said the building fits into one of Kaiser’s goals.
“Aspects of nurturing one’s health include, really, the focus on mind, body and spirit, and we plan our buildings to enhance those aspects of care,” she said.
She said the radiation oncology facility will be filled with natural light, thanks to “many windows and skylights. … It’s going to be quite beautiful.”
The Los Angeles office of Grand Island, N.Y.-based Cannon Design is the project architect.
Anaheim city planning staff praised Kaiser’s building plans in a Sept. 23 memorandum.
“The proposed building and site improvements are well designed, and create a strong sense of integration between the structure and adjacent site features,” said CJ Amstrup and David See of the city’s planning department.
Kaiser’s architecture is consistent with a goal in the community design section of the city’s general plan, Amstrup and See noted. The section encourages “architectural designs that are visually stimulating and varied, yet tasteful, containing rich contrasts and distinctive architectural elements.”
Separately, Kaiser said the National Committee on Quality Assurance ranked its Southern California Medicare plan No. 1 for consumer satisfaction, prevention services and clinical treatment outcomes.
Allergan Signs Neurotoxin Deal
Irvine-based Allergan Inc. entered into a licensing deal with Seoul, South Korea-based Medytox Inc.
Medytox—in a deal in which Allergan initially pays $65 million to the company—is giving the drug maker exclusive rights outside of Korea to develop and commercialize certain neurotoxin candidates in development.
The Botox maker also agreed to make additional development and commercial milestone payments that could total an additional $297 million.
Allergan’s deal with Medytox, which requires South Korean government approval, “is in line with efforts to expand its pipeline,” Chicago-based Zacks Investment Service said in a report on the deal.
Zacks noted that Allergan “already has a strong presence in the neuromodulator market,” thanks to Botox, which accounted for $970.9 million in sales in the first six months of this year. Allergan is set to report its third-quarter results on Oct. 28.
It has said it expects full-year Botox sales of $1.94 billion to $2 billion.
Integrated Healthcare Holdings Adds IT
Santa Ana-based Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc. said it will use Pavisse information technology in its four local hospitals.
Integrated owns Coastal Communities Hospital in Santa Ana; Western Medical Center-Anaheim; Western Medical Center-Santa Ana; and Chapman Medical Center in Orange.
Pavisse is produced by RGP Healthcare, a division of Resources Global Professionals in San Francisco. It’s designed to enhance patient safety and deal with what Integrated called “life-threatening issues and compliance issues” before they occur.
Bits and Pieces
Lake Forest-based Innovative BioDefense Inc. said it’s working with Camarillo-based Golden State Medical Supply to sell its Zylast antimicrobial product line to the government, including the Department of Defense. … Dr. Justin Hata, the residency program director and interim chair of the University of California, Irvine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, is one of 32 clinicians across the state selected for the California HealthCare Foundation’s Health Care Leadership program. The program is a part-time fellowship that runs for two years and allows participants to learn decision-making, strategic planning and execution skills for institutional healthcare leadership.
