|
A Don't-Say-No Policy
Walk into the lobby of the Nevada Cancer Institute, where a colorful blown-glass chandelier by artist Dale Chihuly hangs dramatically, and the receptionist will offer you bottled water. Room temperature or chilled? she asks.
"Hospitality is key," Faircloth says. "We're not a normal hospital. We put the guest -- the patient -- on a pedestal. Everything here is designed to make them feel like a king or queen."
Faircloth walks into a large, sunny room. Floor-to-ceiling windows flood the area in light, while a panorama of the Las Vegas Strip unfolds in the distance.
"We gave them the nicest views," he says.
Patients recline in comfortable chairs watching cable TV on private screens with headphones while an IV dispenses treatment. Off to the side, other patients work on laptops in small private offices while receiving their medicine.
This is the infusion room at the institute, where patients undergo chemotherapy. Some spend eight hours a day for a week here.
"We try to make it as comfortable as possible," says Susan Caramico, nurse manager of clinical oncology.
That seems to be the whole philosophy of the institute. There's a library where patients can check out books. A meditation room with falling water and faux candles. A gift shop that sells wigs and "Cancer sucks" T-shirts. Even the research labs have expansive views of the crimson-colored crags of Red Rock Canyon to the west.
"You can tell it's a Nevada facility," Faircloth says. "You don't say no here; anything is possible. I seldom run into obstacles; it's always, 'Let's find a way to do it.'"
In 2002, Heather Hay Murren founded the nonprofit Nevada Cancer Institute. She was the lead consumer products analyst at Merrill Lynch when she volunteered at a Las Vegas medical clinic and was shocked to discover that the fastest-growing city in the country had no decent cancer treatment center.
"The joke was if you needed treatment for cancer," recalls Faircloth, "you were told to go to McCarran Airport."
Murren quit her job and -- with her husband, Jim, who happened to be president of casino giant MGM Mirage -- started raising money for an institute. So far, they've raised $70 million: $40 million in private funds and the rest in a state-backed bond issue.
In 2003 the institute broke ground on land donated by the Howard Hughes Corp. and the Rouse Corp. in the upscale Summerlin district of Las Vegas. Marnell Corrao Associates, which built many of the mega-resorts on the strip such as the Bellagio, designed a four-story, 142,000-square-foot facility to treat patients and conduct research. The project cost some $52 million.
"We're here to cure cancer," Faircloth says.
|
