A $16 million treatment facility is coming to Lakewood Ranch. It’s billed as state of the art.

Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS) this week broke ground for a $16 million cancer treatment facility in Lakewood Ranch.

The center, scheduled to open in the summer of 2019, will be approximately 10,820 square feet with 38 chemotherapy chairs, 10 examination rooms, a fixed imaging suite, including a Siemens PET/CT unit, and will offer access to clinical trials.

Optimal Outcomes is designing and building the center using Evidence-Based Design (EBD) to achieve functional and aesthetic outcomes that increase operational efficiencies for providers while creating environments that enhance patient experiences and reduce stress, according to a company press release.

Optimal Outcomes of St. Petersburg builds community-based outpatient centers, medical office buildings and comprehensive cancer centers.

In February, the Bradenton Herald reported Optimal Outcomes was planning a 50,000-square-foot medical office building on Lakewood Ranch’s CORE Campus — Collaboration Opportunities for Research and Exploration.

Florida Cancer Specialists’ facility will be located in Optimal’s medical office building on five acres east of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard off Silver Falls Run behind the Earth Fare supermarket.

FCS leaders and physicians Janice F. Eakle, Amir Harandi, Fadi Kayali and Miguel Pelayo, donned hard hats and shoveled the first sections of dirt for the new facility.

“The healthcare industry is placing more emphasis on a patient-centric delivery model that includes higher quality and better located facilities. FCS will be able to offer patients the utmost in functional, modern space and cutting-edge technologies. We are committed to setting a new standard in cancer treatment and demonstrating the true power of what community oncology can be,” Dr. William Harwin, founder and president of FCS, said.

“The new state-of-the art cancer center is another example of our commitment to serving and supporting our patients in communities, both large and small, throughout Florida. This facility will bring a wide range of treatments and services all under one roof, optimizing convenience for our patients in the Lakewood Ranch community,” FCS CEO Bradley Prechtl said.

Founded in 1984, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute has more than 220 physicians, 180 nurse practitioners and physician assistants and nearly 100 locations in its network.

“This new facility will increase our ability to offer unique, state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary oncology treatments in a more comfortable and convenient setting so that we can deliver personalized cancer therapies and provide renewed hope to an even greater number of cancer patients,” Dr. Miguel Pelayo said. “This approach allows us to bring to our patients the most up-to-date cancer treatments available.”

For more information about Florida Cancer Specialists, visit https://www.flcancer.com/

For more information about Optimal Outcomes, visit www.optimal-outcomes.com.