STAPLES — Lakewood Well being System broke floor on the Lakewood Most cancers Heart on Thursday, June 27, in Staples.
Plans for the most cancers middle have been introduced in early 2024, with an anticipated completion date in summer season of 2025. Lakewood Well being staff, suppliers and board members in attendance have been joined by neighborhood and enterprise members, Staples metropolis officers and representatives from Nor-Son Building, Congresswoman Michelle Fischbach’s workplace, RPS Oncology and extra.
Throughout a short program, Lakewood President and CEO Lisa Bjerga; Lakewood Chief Medical Officer Dr. Christine Albrecht; Lakewood oncology affected person Sandra Thompson; Mandy Heffron, consultant for Fischbach; and Dr. Wade Swenson, Lakewood oncologist, shared their ideas on the groundbreaking occasion.
“Neighborhood-based care is uncommon; community-based care in rural Minnesota with glorious management and a great office tradition is much more uncommon, so it is a distinctive alternative to indicate the world the best way to ship world-class most cancers care in a neighborhood setting,” Swenson stated in a information launch.
“Going ahead, we now have plenty of potential to construct on the agricultural most cancers care mannequin we’ve already developed at Lakewood, and it’ll, I hope, present a mannequin for the remainder of the nation to comply with,” he stated.
Since 2022, Lakewood Well being’s oncology crew and providers have grown exponentially. Swenson joined the Lakewood Well being crew in September 2022, with nurse practitioners Alyssa Manning, Mariah Neiman and Jessica Nybakken becoming a member of in December 2022, March 2023 and November 2023, respectively.
Dr. Emily McGovern (Westergard) is ready to hitch the crew in September, and Dr. Aquino Williams will comply with in September 2025.
With the expansion in supplier protection comes the necessity for extra house. The most cancers middle is being constructed to fulfill these rising wants, which may even enable Lakewood so as to add new providers not beforehand obtainable to sufferers within the space.
The 19,270-square-foot addition will likely be off the southwest nook of Lakewood Well being’s Staples clinic and can embody a devoted reception and ready space.
The middle will embody 14 infusion bays, 10 medical oncology and two radiation oncology examination rooms, a process room, in-house PET/CT, and a linear accelerator, used for radiation therapies.
Oncology case managers will likely be positioned throughout the new house for simple entry to sufferers.
