CON for Mon General and WVU Hospitals approved - Hospitals will offer radiation therapy in joint venture

        Very soon patients at the Zelda Stein Weiss Cancer Center will be able to receive all their treatment at Mon General, including radiation therapy.

        In June 2014, the West Virginia Health Care Authority approved a Certificate of Need (CON) that will allow Mon General Hospital to add radiation therapy to the complement of services offered at the Zelda Stein Weiss Cancer Center.

        “This is terrific news for our patients as they will now have comprehensive therapies available to them without being referred outside the Zelda Stein Weiss Cancer Center for a major component of their care,” said Mon Health System President and CEO Darryl Duncan.

        Comprehensive cancer care consists of three main therapies: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Patients might need some or all of these. Currently Mon General only offers surgery and chemotherapy. Patients needing radiation are referred to other facilities.

        “The addition of radiation services will mean that our cancer patients will now be able to get all of their treatment in one location,” Duncan said. “Design and construction of the new $7 million facility is moving forward. We anticipate the new radiation therapy service will be fully operational sometime in 2015.”

        Radiation therapy will be a joint venture with WVU Hospitals. The two entities have formed a corporation that will jointly own and operate a new linear accelerator at Mon General. A linear accelerator is the device used for external beam radiation treatments. The new corporation will also operate the Fairmont Regional Cancer Center.

        The Foundation of Mon General Hospital has raised the funds necessary to cover Mon General’s share of the construction and linear accelerator. Mon General will build the radiation therapy clinic and vault for the linear accelerator, which will be leased to the joint venture.

        Radiation oncology physicians and physicists from the WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center will provide the clinical expertise for the new radiation therapy facility, in collaboration with oncologists who practice at Mon General Hospital’s Zelda Stein Weiss Cancer Center.

        The new radiation center will be located near the east canopy entrance to the hospital, placing outpatient oncology services in a single easily accessible location.