The facility will be funded primarily through a sixth penny specific purpose excise tax voted in during the November elections in Sweetwater County.The building will house a full-service cancer center, something the hospital touts as "the first of its kind in the region." The center will offer an infusion center for chemotherapy treatment and radiation therapy. According to a release, the Huntsman Cancer Institute — University of Utah Healthcare has been instrumental in the design of the center, in the acquisition of related medical equipment and also in the selection process of the center's staff and physicians. It was unclear at press time how many new positions will be created.
Beyond the cancer center, the expansive expansion will also give home to current employed physician practices, other local physician practices, a rehabilitation center, a pain management clinic and an expanded dialysis center.
"This medical office building will save us an estimated $300,000 a year based on our current expenses to occupy off-site office space for Sweetwater Medical Group," said Irene Richardson, Chief Financial Officer of Memorial Hospital. "The community asked us to bring in more physicians and specialties and we've grown our practice from one physician in 2006, to 15 providers in 10 specialties currently."
The new building is in part the fruit of an affiliation agreement with University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics signed in October last year that will allow "both organizations to begin offering specialties and services in southwest Wyoming that have been largely limited in the past due to the rural location and small population."
"This will be the biggest improvement to healthcare in Southwest Wyoming in over 20 years," said Gary Collins, marketing director at Memorial Hospital. "This partnership will help to bring specialties and services to the area in the near future that have not been accessible in the past, and will allow patients to stay local for treatment they have had to travel for until now."
CEO Gerard Klein echoed the sentiment, saying the new center will "change the dynamic of healthcare across the region.
For more information, please contact Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County at 307-362-3711 or visit them at www.sweetwatermemorial.com.
The announcement of the facility is the latest, and largest, in a string of cancer-center announcements in the state. Cheyenne Regional Medical Center will also open its 40,000-square-foot, two-story cancer center this fall; Fort Collins, Colo. will also have its own new 30,000-square-foot facility by 2014; and Big Horn Basin Regional Cancer Center in Cody recently received a $5.2 million grant to bring in a linear accelerator; and Casper-based Rocky Mountain Oncology Center (RMOC), the region's largest comprehensive cancer treatment center, is expanding its services to include radiation in Fremont County. It has been offering medical oncology services in this area for over 15 years, and is now including Radiation Therapy to their long-standing cancer program. Both Casper Radiation Oncologists, Dr. Robert Tobin and Dr. John Purviance, expect to be open for Radiation Therapy in Fremont County by the end of 2013.
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