NORFOLK, Va. — Sentara Healthcare announced the name of its newest cancer treatment center on Friday.
The Brock Cancer Center, named after Joan Brock, has been treating patients since June 1.
Brock wanted to honor her family and late husband, Macon, with the name. She's a donor to the healthcare system, a past board member and three-time cancer survivor herself.
“I heard that dreaded phrase, ‘You have cancer,’ so I know how vital it is to have a comprehensive solution that treats the whole person as well as the disease,” Joan Brock wrote in a statement.
This sneak-peak post of the cancer center is from 2019.
Sentara broke ground on the $93.5 million project in 2018. According to a release from the system, the 253,000 square-foot facility was designed to be family-friendly and comforting.
The facility offers treatment from Virginia Oncology Associates and Eastern Virginia Medical School teams, and houses caregiver work stations, a "Healing Garden," a rehabilitation gym, a wig shop and alternative medicine (massage and music therapy) experts.
A spokesperson for Sentara said the "one-stop shop" character of the Brock Cancer Center was implemented after thinking over input from patients.
"Imagine: a cancer patient in Hampton Roads arrives and enters one building to complete all of their needed treatments, support services, and consultations," the spokesperson wrote. "Cancer survivors and caregivers understand the constant burden and disruptions of seeing several specialty doctors and having multiple appointments in several different locations, over long periods of time."
For now, patients (and their one permitted visitor) will be screened at the door for COVID-19 symptoms, and all people who come inside are required to wear a face mask.
Sentara Healthcare will still be treating cancer patients at its other locations. The Brock Cancer Center is in Norfolk, at 6251 East Virginia Beach Blvd.