New Cancer Center Opened by Adventist Health Ministry in Dayton
December 15, 2016: A new, state-of-the-art cancer center was opened this week in Dayton (Ohio) by Kettering Health Network, the Adventist health ministry in this Midwest United States metropolitan area. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held last week for the 120,000-square-foot, five-story facility and the first patients checked in on Tuesday this week.
“This is a milestone for us,” Kettering CEO Fred Manchur told the Dayton Daily News at the event last week attended by civic leaders, physicians, former patients and television teams. “There is nothing like this building … in the country.” It cost $53 million to build.
The new center includes one of the largest chemotherapy facilities in the Midwest, a specialized pharmacy and a cafe catering to the nutrition needs of cancer patients. More than 30 physicians specializing in cancer treatment will work in the center.
The center was developed with the guidance of a patient advisory council made up of cancer patients and survivors. “Everything has been done with patients in mind,” Roy Chew, the president of Kettering Health Network, told the newspaper. “The physicians have been a tremendous asset in helping to … truly make this a patient-centered facility. That’s really the hallmark of this center.”
Earlier this fall, the Adventist health care organization announced that it has added an ambulance service, including a helicopter, to its full range of services. It has added a network of ten free-standing emergency centers to the seven hospitals it operates.
In October, Kettering Health Network launched the region’s first surgical emergency medical response team (SERT) led by Dr. Douglas Paul. The team can intervene in industrial accidents and disaster situations where surgical care is needed on location in order to remove wounded persons from collapsed buildings, equipment and vehicles.
The Dayton metropolitan area has one of the largest per capita Adventist populations in the United States. There are ten Adventist congregations, a K-12 church school and an Adventist college in the area, as well as Good Neighbor House, an Adventist Community Services agency.
The featured photo with this story is that of the new Kettering Health Network Cancer Center in Dayton, Ohio. Comments about this story can be placed on the Adventist Today Facebook page or sent via Email to atoday@atoday,org; put Kettering Cancer Center in the subject line of the Email. Email comments will be published in the Letters section.
