Rain clouds loomed over Kaiser Permanente’s Modesto campus Thursday, as oncologist Dr. Megumi Tomita asked Modesto’s Interim Fire Chief Kevin Wise if she could share his cancer survival story with her team.
He enthusiastically agreed.
In 2015, Wise was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, after a plasmacytoma tumor was found in his chest.
At the event Wise thanked the local Kaiser oncology doctors and nurses for the work they’ve done over the years to keep him healthy.
“It’s so important for us doctors to hear about patients like you.” Tomita told Wise at the ground-breaking ceremony for “Medical Office Building 2” in Modesto on Thursday.
Aphriekah Duhaney-West, senior vice president and area manager of Kaiser Permanente’s Central Valley region, joked that her team needs to work on a new name as soon as possible. The building is set to be completed by spring 2026.
Duhaney-West said Kaiser is seeking LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
In an effort to be good stewards of the environment, she said the facility will include solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, plus flooring installation and furniture made of blue emitting materials to improve indoor air quality.
The non-emergency facility will be nearly 106,000 square feet, three stories tall and provide space for 74 provider offices, 28 chairs for cancer treatment and 108 exam rooms.
It will house family medicine, primary care, physical and occupational therapy, hematology and oncology, pediatrics with a newborn care center and high risk infancy clinic, and an outpatient pharmacy.
Some of these departments will move completely and others will expand into the new facility, Physician in Chief Dr. Sanjay Marwaha said during the event.
Aside from providing the Modesto and surrounding communities with better access to these services, the facility is also boosting the local economy by creating local jobs, Duhaney-West said.
Registered Nurse and Modesto Mayor Sue Zwahlen told attendees she could have only dreamed of the services the new project will be able to provide. She hopes its existence will give local healthcare students a reason to stay and work in the Valley.
Recruitment to find staff for the new building begins immediately, Marwaha said.
He is optimistic that more students will stay and work in Modesto because of opportunities like UC Davis’s partnership with Kaiser in Modesto, which has already brought in three new doctors to the hospital.
Valley needs more medical facilities
Projects like these are top of mind for Duhaney-West.
Last November, City of Manteca officials complained they are in desperate need of an expansion to their Kaiser campus.
Aside from Modesto, Kaiser Permanente has facilities in Manteca, Tracy, Stockton and Turlock.
Manteca Mayor Gary Singh told ABC10 he needed to see action from Kaiser’s leadership because the city’s patients are being forced to wait outside under tents by the small hospital’s overwhelmed staff members.
After Modesto’s ground-breaking event, Duhaney-West said she is still in talks with the Kaiser Permanente Board about the potential to build a medical office building in Manteca, and will hear more on the topic in the near future.
Vivienne Aguilar is the health equity reporter for the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative, a nonprofit newsroom based in Merced, in collaboration with the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF).