The 6-year-old medical group operates at Providence Medford Medical Center and Three Rivers Medical Center in Grants Pass. Ground was broken Friday on the 28,000-square-foot structure in southeast Medford that will give patients easier access to a third Southern Oregon hospital.

Permits for the $1,850,000 project are awaiting approval by the Medford planning department. Batzer Inc. is the contractor and the building was designed by Batzer architect Mark McKechnie.

Hematology Oncology Associates was founded in 1999 and began taking patients in 2000. The group provides medical care for cancer patients who require chemotherapy or have blood diseases. The staff physicians are: Gerald Ahmann, Charles Dibb, Richard Karchmer, Susan Kohler, Brett Poisson, Sean Hehn and Charles Doolittle.

Oncology nurses and support staff bring the group’s employment to 60. Additional medical staff will be added when the project is completed sometime in 2006.

HOA administrator Greg Gilbert said the group plans to add two more physicians this summer and later expand to 10. In addition, plans call for four physician assistants.

Over a three-year period, Gilbert said the staff population will grow to 75 employees.