Continuing efforts to create a multifaceted children’s hospital, Kaleida Health‘s Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (WCHOB) and Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) have partnered to build a pediatric hematology oncology center in the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital. 
Signing a memorandum of understanding to plan the new center today, the WCHOB and RPCI have begun the planning process for this physician-led initiative to combine their services, creating a single center of excellence for pediatric inpatient/outpatient care. The proposed Center will incorporate inpatient beds, an outpatient clinic, isolation beds for blood and bone marrow transplant/high-dose therapy patients, and infusion facilities for chemotherapy and blood products, all in a protected environment on the top floor of the new hospital.
Both institutions are two of the most prominent healthcare institutions in WNY, providing pediatric hematology-oncology services for more than forty years. Currently, WCHOB provides specialty pediatric services essential to the care of these children including surgery, anesthesia, intensive care, and diagnostic imaging. RPCI provides oncology clinical leadership and services including radiation therapy, certain highly-specialized diagnostic services, blood and marrow transplants and clinical trials. RPCI is expected hold a long-term lease for the Center and will be responsible for its medical direction. The planned Center will continue to capitalize on the unique expertise of both institutions.
“This partnership between the two organizations is an excellent example of the many opportunities the new John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus is granting,” said Teresa Quattrin, MD, Chair, Department of Pediatrics, Professor of Pediatrics, SUNY at Buffalo, and Pediatrician-in-Chief, Chief, Division of Endocrinology-Diabetes, Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. “We look forward to continuing to create this integrated Hematology & Oncology Unit to further enhance the care provided to patients and their families throughout Western New York and beyond.”
WCHOB is submitting its Certificate of Need wp-contentlication for the new hospital to the New York State Department of Health on November 2nd. RPCI anticipates to submit the Certificate of Need for the Pediatric Hematology Oncology Center by the end of the year.
“Each institution contributes unique expertise and services to children and young adults with cancer and blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, hemophilia and anemia. The new hospital presents a great opportunity to develop a true pediatric Center of Excellence,” said Martin L. Brecher, MD, Chair of Pediatrics at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Chief of Hematology Oncology at Women & Children’s Hospital and Chief of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics at the University at Buffalo.
James R. Kaskie, President and CEO of Kaleida Health stated that “Together, and in conjunction with the University at Buffalo academic programs, we will jointly operate a center of excellence for children with cancer and blood diseases where expert clinical services are provided, innovative and pioneering research is advanced to find a cure and improve treatment options, and current and future health care professionals are trained and educated.”
“Management of cancer is best provided in facilities where hospital inpatient beds and outpatient facilities are in close proximity. The relocation of the children’s hospital to the medical campus provides the opportunity to pull together what have been two physically separate outpatient and inpatient units into a single, expanded service comprehensive facility to serve the needs of children of all ages with blood diseases and cancer,” said Donald L. Trump, MD, President and CEO of RPCI.
Each institution’s respective Board of Directors recognizes that the relocation of the WCHOB to the BNMC presents a unique opportunity to take an excellent pediatric hematology oncology program and make it extraordinary by bringing all the services together in a new state-of-the-art hospital. Philanthropic support for the hospital and for the pediatric hematology oncology center will be required to make the program consolidation a reality.
The 12-story, 430,000 sq. ft. John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital is scheduled to open in 2016.