Baptist Health says the newest unit at Baptist Medical Center in Downtown Jacksonville is designed to provide advanced care to patients with some forms of cancer while also helping them and their families maintain their mental and emotional wellbeing in the process.
The health system opened its Baptist MD Anderson Cellular Therapy and Stem Cell Transplant Unit on Aug. 27 with a ribbon-cutting at the Southbank medical center at 800 Prudential Drive.
On the 11th floor of the Weaver Tower, the $18 million dedicated inpatient unit includes 24 rooms for patients undergoing cellular therapy and stem cell transplantations for blood cancers and other complex cancer treatments.
Because those therapies can temporarily suppress the immune system and can require stays of several days or weeks, Baptist Health says it designed the unit with such added protections as extra handwashing stations, an advanced ventilation and air filtration system and cabinets with personal protective equipment outside each room.
Other elements include a negative-pressure room where staff enter through a sealed anteroom to wash their hands and make other preparations. The room is designed to prevent the spread of airborne illnesses.
Patient rooms at the Baptist MD Anderson Cellular Therapy and Stem Cell Transplant Unit at Baptist Medical Center were designed to offer comfort to patients and their families, including a couch that folds out into a twin bed. Baptist Health ceremonially opened the unit with an Aug. 27 ribbon-cutting.
Photo by Ric Anderson
“It’s specifically created for patients who potentially have an isolation precaution that could be respiratory in nature,” said April Hile, clinical program manager for stem cell transplant and cellular therapy for Baptist MD Anderson, during a tour of the unit. “We want to ensure we continue to uphold high standards of care for them and protect our other patients and our staff as well.”
For patients and their families, Baptist Health included elements aimed at providing comfort during long stays. Framed fine art is on display, along with video boards showing hundreds of images of nature, the environment and Jacksonville scenes.
LeeAnn Mengel, vice president and administrator at Baptist MD Anderson, said the artwork selections, lighting and other details were the result of consultations with patient panels.
“We would go into a space and say, ‘What do you not like about this space?’” she said. “And they’d say, ‘It’s drab, it’s depressing, it has cancer pictures – people with bald heads.’”
“And they don’t want to remember that. They want to remember when they did have hair. They want to remember when they were kayaking and out doing other things. And so the focus just really switched.”
Each patient room has a couch that folds out to a twin bed. A rehabilitation space with stationary bikes, a treadmill and weights is available to patients who need more intensive exercise, and family members can relax in a break room with a refrigerator, microwave, snacks and a TV.
Most patient rooms have views of the St. Johns River and the Jacksonville skyline.
Dr. Tom Dragovich, medical oncologist and head of the Baptist MD Anderson Division of Cancer Medicine, said the new cancer unit at Baptist Medical Center was designed to serve as a “home outside of the home” for patients and their families. It includes a family lounge with a refrigerator, TV, microwave and dining area.
Photo by Ric Anderson
A corner meditation room, also with a view of the river, is available to patients seeking solace during their treatment.
Dr. Tom Dragovich, medical oncologist and head of the Baptist MD Anderson Division of Cancer Medicine, said the unit’s design was patient-focused.
“While these therapies are life-saving, they can be very intense,” he said. “And often, patients and families will be spending days and weeks here, so the idea is really to surround them with an environment that is comforting. The protocol is not easy, physically or emotionally, so the idea is to provide them with a home outside of the home.”
Dragovich said the comforting touches would not only result in a more pleasant environment for patients but have been proven to help them contend with the rigors of their treatment.
“Having all of the support – chaplains, the meditation room, all of it – is important,” he said. “There have been studies showing that people who have social and emotional support actually do better.”
The unit also provides for the wellbeing of staff through a respite room that includes a massage chair.
The specialized cellular therapy and stem cell transplant program was established through an endowment by patients Patricia and Bob Paquette. It was created in former office space to bring specialized cancer services together in one location, and borrows elements from the Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center main campus at 1301 Palm Ave.
A meditation room in the Baptist MD Anderson Cellular Therapy and Stem Cell Transplant Unit at Baptist Medical Center offers patients and families a quiet place to reflect. As with most of the unit’s 24 patient rooms, it offers a view of the St. Johns River.
Photo by Ric Anderson
In 2025, Baptist MD Anderson began offering CAR T cell therapy, which the health system describes as a form of immunotherapy that uses a patient’s own T cells (white blood cells) to better recognize and eliminate cancer cells.
The treatment involves collecting T cells from the patient’s blood, then modifying them in a lab to attack cancer cells and returning them to the body. The therapy has shown promise in treating leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma, Baptist Health said.
Next year, the program aims to introduce stem cell transplantations, a treatment that helps restore the body’s ability to produce healthy blood cells and boost the immune system.
Dr. Maxim Norkin, hematologist-oncologist and medical director of the Robert L. and Patricia A. Paquette Cellular Therapy Program, said in an Aug. 27 news release about the new unit that there had been “remarkable advances in treatments for blood cancers in recent years.”
“Patients with cancers that are difficult to treat or were once thought of as incurable are living longer with an improved quality of life, and we are proud to offer these life-changing treatments to our patients,” he said.