ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 4, 1997 TAG: 9704040036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER THE ROANOKE TIMES
After three years of planning and struggling, the Columbia New River Valley Cancer Care Center is about to become a reality.
A new cancer treatment center will start taking patients from the New River Valley and beyond early next month.
Interior work on the 10,500-square-foot facility attached to Columbia Pulaski Community Hospital is being completed, and the precision-controlled linear accelerator to be used in radiation treatment is about midway through its testing process.
The unit will also have a chemotherapy treatment center, and its own parking area which will soon be paved. It will be called the Columbia New River Valley Cancer Care Center.
It has been three years since the hospital, in cooperation with Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital and Salem's Columbia Lewis-Gale Medical Center, began seeking certification to build the $3.6 million center, including $2.1 million for equipment. Radford Community Hospital also applied to build one, and it was not until March 20, 1995, when Acting State Health Commissioner Donald Stern decided in Pulaski's favor.
Helen Lovern, previously chief radiation therapist at Lewis-Gale, is the unit's technical director. Dr. David M. Randolph will be the medical director both at Pulaski and Lewis-Gale.
Lovern said cancer patients were surveyed to see what they would want in a treatment center. The results include dressing areas, lockers and other facilities.
The building includes physician offices as well as treatment areas, a centralized waiting area and family counseling rooms.
Lewis-Gale's cancer center will complete an expansion this spring, which includes a new linear accelerator with multiple energies. News conferences to introduce the new facilities are planned for May 27 in Pulaski and June 3 in Salem.
The new facilities were set up for patients from the counties of Pulaski, Wythe, Bland, Montgomery, Smyth, Floyd, Carroll and Grayson. Previously, patients from those localities had to drive to the Roanoke area for treatment.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB