St. Anne's Hospital seeks some help building world-class oncology center

CHIEF DOCTOR: Dr. Rita Linggood, Chief of the Radiation Oncology Department at St. Anne's Hospital, gave a multimedia presentation at BankFive in Dartmouth last week on the new $21 million Oncology Center the hospital plans to open on Faunce Corner Road this summer. PHOTO BY ROBERT BARBOZA The Chronicle	VISITING DARTMOUTH: St. Anne's Hospital President Joseph E. Ciccolo, Jr. visited BankFive's Dartmouth branch last week to talk about plans for the hospital's new $21 million radiation oncology center under construction on Faunce Corner Road.  PHOTO BY ROBERT BARBOZA The Chronicle

DARTMOUTH — To listen to the doctors, the hospital president, the town officials, and the bank president at BankFive in Dartmouth last week, the $20 million new oncology center that St. Anne's Hospital Group is fund-raising for, under construction on Faunce Corner Road, meant something a little bit different to each.

For Dr. Rita Linggood, Chief, Radiation Oncology at St. Anne's, the new health care facility was a superfortress in the war against cancer, a high-tech castle packed with the latest technology to help her and her staff find and kill cancers, and save patients.

She delighted in her slide show, picturing multi-million dollar machines meant to pinpoint malignant cells more accurately, then blast them with radiation in precise, controlled doses.

"The machines alone are not the whole story, though," Dr. Linggood explained. "We care for people as people, not just patients. The joy (for the medical professional) is in doing follow-up, and seeing them get better," she pointed out.

Hospital President Joseph E. Ciccolo, Jr. saw the building as the new home of "outstanding physicans and staff, and the latest in technology" in the industry, unrivalled on the South Coast. The oncology center is being leased from Hawthorne Medical Group, and should be completed by the end of July.

Supporting the hardware and the skilled staff will be social service people, someone to help patients with their spiritual needs, hospice care if needed, transportation, and anything else needed, the president said. "We think about the whole being," he insisted, not just the data appearing on the plasma displays.

"We're making a significant investment in this community," Mr. Ciccolo continued, causing the eyes of Town Treasurer Edward Iacaponi to light up a bit. He saw the new facility as a top-notch community asset, plus the potential source of $150,000 or more in new property tax revenues for his cash-strapped town government coffers

"It's going to be a big part of our new growth (tax revenue) this year," confirmed Paul Bergman of the Dartmouth Assessors Office. "It really is, because nothing else is being built—" residential or commercial— because of the economy, he suggested.

"It's a great thing for Dartmouth, it really is," Mr. Iacaponi insisted, happy thoughts of new tax revenue being set aside. The prestige of a world-class facility, the new construction and medical jobs, plus the much-needed boost to the property tax base, all sounded like good news for Dartmouth, he said.

BankFive President Thomas F. Lyons said he offered his bank for the fundraising effort because he believed in the mission of the hospital group and oncology center staff. He noted the loss of two close family members to breast cancer, and pledged to do whatever he could to bring the finest oncology care available to residents of the South Coast.

"Anything we can do to help our friends and neighbors in Dartmouth and surrounding communities will be a gift of love," the bank president suggested.