WAILUKU, Maui — More than 4,300 patients avoided off-island oncology treatment and instead received the care they needed from the Pacific Cancer Institute of Maui, a facility that marked its 15th anniversary this week.

"It has been overwhelming at times during the past 15 years to see how many lives have been affected by cancer," said Dr. Bobby Baker, a radiation oncologist and the founder of the Pacific Cancer Institute. "It never ceases to amaze me how grateful patients are to get to stay at home in their own bed during this critical time when being with your family has its own special healing power."

Baker fought for a certificate of need from the state Health Planning and Development Agency in the early 1990s, offering radiation treatment and therapy that residents here had to travel to O'ahu or the Mainland to receive.

Maui Memorial Medical Center initially opposed Baker's facility, saying it had plans to build out its own services.

Eventually, hospital officials worked out a memorandum of agreement with Baker that included providing the space his facility now occupies next to the emergency room.

Baker announced plans two years ago to build a new comprehensive cancer center in Kahului but has since placed the project on hold while he evaluates a possible partnership with Maui Memorial, placing his facility on property off Maui Lani Parkway.

Baker said he hopes to make a decision about a new cancer center sometime in October.

The Pacific Cancer Institute of Maui opened its doors on the hospital grounds on Sept. 16, 1994.

Fifteen years later, Baker is in the midst of installing a new high-speed computer system that will allow significant speed and handling of electronic medical records.

He said the new system provides for patient scans taken through computerized axial tomography or magnetic resonance imaging to be imported, regardless of where they were performed, without unnecessary and costly duplication and repeat scanning once a patient has been referred for radiation treatment.

Cancer institute business administrator Lydia Toda said that the new computers allow the facility to stay on top of the technology necessary to deliver radiation services.

"We can order CDs of a patient's previous X-rays and load them into our planning system without repeating most of these procedures," Toda said. "This will not only save time, but it will also save money for the patients and their insurance."

The institute's medical physicist, Tom Sullivan, said that the system's new software "will allow us to import and export 3-D anatomical structures into the planning computer more efficiently. The ultimate goal is to get patients who need to start radiation treatments ready to go sooner."

According to Baker, prior to his facility's opening, patients had to fly to Honolulu on a daily basis for six to eight weeks to receive radiation oncology. Some flew even farther to the Mainland and had to endure being away from their family while seeking treatment.