Outpatients with cancer will no longer have to park in a crowded garage, walk across a large busy road, and take an even busier elevator to the top floor of the Don Monti Cancer Center at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. In a nationwide trend that has shifted patients of all kinds to ambulatory care, North Shore is moving its cancer chemotherapy outpatients to their new facility, the Monter Cancer Center. It is located in New Hyde Park in the original United Nations building, across from Long Island Jewish Medical Center, at 450 Lakeville Road in i.Park.

The unfinished facility still awaits approval from the New York State Department of Health, and is expected to start treating patients in March. The family foundation, named after Gerald, Elliot, Marilyn and Ruth Monter, donated $10 million to help create the $17 million, 37,000 square-foot center.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 9 celebrated Phase 1 of the overall facility. Phase 2 will take place next year when an 18,000 square-foot expansion will be completed. This will provide cancer outpatient services to patients from LIJ. Inpatient treatment services will continue at both North Shore and LIJ.

Earlier in the day, another ribbon was cut for another unit within the Monter Center. It is named the Phyllis and Stanley Kreitman Chemotherapy Center. The Kreitmans donated $2 million toward its construction.

"This is a living memorial to my late wife who was treated at North Shore," said Mr. Kreitman. We hope it's on its way to becoming a premier center in the country. Long Islanders are fortunate to have such a facility in their own backyards so they no longer have to travel long distances for expert care."

In the Monter Center are 32 private therapy areas with plasma televisions (the Kreitman Center), doctors' offices, 23 examination and consultation rooms, social work and support services, nutrition counseling, a bone marrow-stem cell transplant program, a patient education center, a café and a conference room with high-tech teleconferencing abilities. Access to clinical research trials are promoted in the center.

Together, North Shore and LIJ treat 3,000 outpatients each year. The number of newly diagnosed cancer cases is expected to increase more than 20 percent by 2010.

Vincent Vinciguerra, MD, chief of the Don Monti Medical Oncology/Hematology Division, was thrilled with the center. "This is a dream come true, our own home to house a big team providing the best in patient care," he said proudly, acknowledging the crowded treatment area and difficult-to-access Monti Center in Manhasset.

The Monter Center was designed by EwingCole, Philadelphia-based architects. The layout is organized around three 120-foot long skylights, bringing lots of daylight to patient care areas. More than 50 bamboo trees were planted in the main entrance for a garden-like environment.