Progress is being made on a comprehensive cancer treatment center to be located in the former Medac Building at 150 Bluff Avenue in North Augusta, SC. These development efforts represent total investments of over $35,000,000 into North Augusta, including $20,000,000 invested into the former Medac Building.
Following Medac’s acquisition by Coronis Health, the Board of North Augusta Forward recognized the opportunity for the building to better support downtown revitalization by increasing the density of employees and customers using the building. Working with Palmetto Peach Development, a Master Plan was developed to bring the vision to life.
Palmetto Peach Development is transforming the building into space for the Augusta Oncology (AO) Multispecialty Clinic. Demolition on the first and second floors of the Medac Building is complete, and full-scale renovations are underway. There are not one, but two, linear accelerator vaults being constructed to provide radiation treatment to patients.
Plumbing work has been completed, and electrical and mechanical rough-ins are nearly concluded. Workers have finished framing the walls for the facility, including the chemotherapy lab, treatment rooms, and employee facilities. Sheetrock will soon go up, and exterior improvements will soon commence.
In late June, Dr. David Squires with AO Multispecialty told ABD that the new center will have cutting-edge radiation equipment unlike anywhere in the country. The medical oncologists will move from their current location at Piedmont Augusta to the new facility. He anticipates the move will benefit patients.
With the opening of AO Multispecialty Clinic’s new campus next to the Beacon Bluff development, is dramatically expanding its patient-centered clinical offerings. In 2022, they referred an estimated 4,000 patients to outside facilities for these procedures, but they believe that to provide a more holistic treatment to patients in a timely manner, it is imperative that AOMSC offer additional services, only made possible by state-of-the-art facilities and vaults for linear accelerators.
AO Multispecialty Clinic has spent the past 18 months evaluating the business model and has decided to partner with Varian, A Siemens Healthcare Company, to bring the latest high-precision technology for patient care to the region. Renovation of the building will be completed by the year’s end, with the facilities fully operational by spring of 2025. Upon opening, this will be the most advanced Radiation Oncology Treatment offering in the states of Georgia and South Carolina.
Editor’s Note:
Mitzi Oxford is a veteran broadcaster and features writer who also worked at the same television station in Columbus, Georgia as Augusta’s Brad Means! If you have a South Carolina story idea for Mitzi, please email her at mitzioxfordcreative@gmail.com.
