St. Charles Health System wants to build a new, 18,000-square-foot addition on its Bend campus to consolidate its cancer treatment services. Blueprints show the center (made brighter in this rendering) would be built on the south end of the St. Charles Bend campus, near the hospital's Heart Center entrance.

St. Charles Health System is preparing for a major expansion of its Bend cancer center.

The hospital plans to construct a two-story, 18,000-square-foot addition at its campus on Northeast Neff Road, according to planning documents filed with the city of Bend.

The project will bring together in one building the hospital’s cancer doctors and its radiation and chemotherapy services, which are currently housed in a leased facility several blocks away near Northeast Courtney Drive and Northeast 27th Street.

Hospital officials hope to break ground in July. Plans show it being built immediately south of the hospital’s Heart Center, said Kirk Schueler, chief administrative officer with St. Charles Health System.

A ground-breaking next summer would put the project on track for completion in mid-2014.

“The plan is to bring together our medical and oncology services,” Schueler said. “Having them separated doesn’t work as well for patients or staff.”

The project is expected to cost about $13 million. The St. Charles Foundation, the hospital’s nonprofit fundraising arm, has set a goal of raising $5 million of the building cost, with the rest coming out of the hospital general fund.

Blueprints filed with the city show plans for examination rooms and physician offices on the ground floor of the new building, with chemotherapy treatment services on the second floor.

Complementary services like acupuncture and massage therapy are expected in the new building as well, Schueler said.

The hospital has talked for several years about integrating its cancer services under one roof, said Allison McCormick, cancer center director.

Navigating between the main campus and the oncology center near Courtney Drive has sometimes been troubling to patients, who have to shuttle back and forth between the two facilities to get the full scope of cancer treatment, McCormick said.

“One might not think that five blocks would make a difference,” McCormick said. “But think about a patient weakened by radiation and chemotherapy. Patients may have other medical concerns, and having to drive to another facility just adds to the stress.”

The expansion plans also include adding 53 parking spaces west of the Heart Center and propose some landscaping work around the hospital’s main entrance.

“The goal of all of this is to have patients come into a warm, supportive environment where they can have all their clinical needs met in one place, as well as their emotional and spiritual needs,” McCormick said.