$18.2-Million Expansion Brings Cancer Center to Valencia Hospital

Several hundred people on Sunday celebrated the completion of new hospital facilities that will for the first time allow Santa Clarita Valley residents to receive a complete range of cancer treatment, as well as rehabilitation for drug and alcohol abuse.

The Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia has completed an $18.2-million expansion that includes a cancer treatment center where area residents will have access to radiation therapy. Physicians say the facility will eliminate the need for patients to take long and uncomfortable car and ambulance rides to the San Fernando Valley for such treatments.

“We can now provide state-of-the-art services,” said Dr. Bernard Lewinsky, a cancer specialist who will be using the hospital’s new $600,000 linear accelerator to provide patients with radiation treatments.

Hospital officials hosted a brunch Sunday and gave the first public tours of the new facilities at the area’s only comprehensive hospital.

The hospital additions, which were paid for with proceeds from the sale of tax-exempt bonds and private donations, provide space for psychiatric treatment and day care for senior citizens, and include maternity wards that feature private suites decorated with wallpaper and plants. The project also includes a new 40,000-square-foot medical office building.

The additions nearly double the hospital’s capacity to a total of 251 beds, officials said, and are expected to open early next month, following an inspection and the expected approval of a permit by state health authorities.

The hospital opened in 1975 with 78 physicians and 99 beds. A second wing completed in 1984 added 34 beds. With the most recent addition, the hospital will employ nearly 230 physicians.

The hospital foundation’s 35-member volunteer board of directors conducted a fund-raising campaign that brought in about $650,000 for the hospital improvements.

Foundation Chairman Richard Keysor, a local plastics manufacturer and a resident of the area since 1964, said the expansion of the 15-year-old hospital has reflected the growth of the Santa Clarita Valley--one of the fastest-growing areas in the state. Keysor said he became involved with fund-raising efforts because “the community needed it, my employees needed it and my family needed it.”

Santa Clarita Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said she and other city officials have for years been backing expansion of the hospital. But Darcy, a 22-year resident of the area, said her reasons for supporting the hospital go beyond civic pride.

“My husband is a heart patient and has been in this hospital 12 times,” Darcy said. “This hospital literally saved his life.”