By Charles Owens
For Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Princeton — A crowd of onlookers watched Tuesday as a bulldozer tore into a former laundry building on the campus of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital to help make way for a new comprehensive cancer care center for the region.
The demolition work represents the first visible steps in the development of the new $35 million cancer center, which will be constructed at the former laundry facility site alongside the Princeton hospital’s Parkview Center.
Karen Bowling, president and CEO of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital, said Tuesday’s event was a historic moment for health care in Southern West Virginia.
“This is a great event for us today because we are paving the way for our new cancer center project,” Bowling said. “We had an old laundry building, and that laundry building needed to come down before we were able to actually get started on the bulk of what we need to do for our cancer project.”
The new cancer care center is part of a $64.5 million investment in Mercer County by WVU Medicine that also includes a new full-service emergency department with imaging and laboratory services that will be constructed in Bluefield near the existing Behavioral Health Pavilion.
The new cancer center in Princeton will be a 45,500-square foot two-story building. It will house the hospital’s infusion center for patients to be able to receive not only their cancer treatments, but also other kinds of infusions as well. The primary floor will be radiation oncology. The new cancer center will serve a 10-county region in Southern West Virginia and neighboring Southwest Virginia.
Bowling said the former laundry building, which has existed since the early 1990s, will come down quickly to make way for the new cancer center.
“We needed to make sure we got the building down within really the next couple of months and I think everyone will see the building will go down quickly and then we will be able to start really seeing the (cancer care center) take shape,” Bowling said. “I think that’s really going to be exciting for our community. I think everyone knows the cancer center is coming but the reality of it doesn’t always sit with people until they see a structure being built.”
Bowling said 2027 is still the target date for the completion of construction on the new comprehensive cancer care center project.
“You’ll see the building come up fast,” she said. “And really, as we get to a couple of other different points during the cancer center project, we’ll probably do some things to celebrate those points in time.”
Bowling said providing cancer care services to the region is a critical goal of WVU Medicine.
“So we keep that front and center for our patients because cancer care is really important in this region,” Bowling said. “We have high incidences of cancer. We have high incidence of mortality. And so it is critical that people will understand the importance of early treatment detection, and what we can do here to treat patients now in conjunction with the West Virginia Cancer Institute in Morgantown.”
Bowling said a team of dedicated medical professionals will staff the new cancer center.
“I think you know WVU Medicine is committed to treat people close to home, and I think we’ve demonstrated that by what we’ve done here, really, over the last four years,” Bowling said. “And we’ve continued to expand services here, cancer being a very important service line, and we have a lot of very dedicated oncology staff. We have dedicated physicians. We have people that really are focused on caring for people. And we’ve seen a lot less transfers out of our area because we’re providing services that five years ago we could not provide here at this hospital. So I am super excited about our focus on this community and ensuring that we provide quality health care. I have strong feelings about it. I’m from Southern West Virginia and the thing that bothers me is I don’t want there to be disparities in the way health care is treated based on your zip code. If you live in Southern West Virginia, you deserve the best health care and that’s our goal with WVU Medicine.”
Bowling said the new facility will provide expanded cancer care services and treatment options for citizens across the region.
“I think you know when you talk about what the cancer facility will bring, I like to talk about it in terms of a one-stop shop,” she said. “You know right now the care is a little bit fragmented. You need radiation oncology you go to our Bluefield campus. You need medical oncology, you come here to this campus. If you need a PET CT, then we have a mobile service that provides that. So you know fragmentation is never good for patients with cancer. It’s still state of the art. We are providing those services. But our goal is really providing them in one area. So that if you’re a patient who has cancer, you and your family know where you are going. You’re walking through the entrance to our cancer center. You’re going downstairs for the radiation oncology. You’re going upstairs to have your infusion, or you’re going to the left and you’re getting your scan done. And so all of that within the same building.”
During Tuesday’s ceremony, Bowling spoke on the history of the old laundry building that is coming down and the services provided by the employees there over the years. The laundry facility was once a state-of-the-art operation, processing thousands of pounds of linen each hour through an automated system.
“So I like to tell people today is not an ending if the building comes down,” Bowling said. “We’re not ending. We are beginning something new. It is a continuation of our outstanding service we already provide here. It is a continuation of our commitment to this community. And that is what I’m most proud of is what WVU Medicine has brought to this community. The expansion of services, the great things that are happening here so that we can get care close to home because this community deserves the best. We deserve the best. Your zip code shouldn’t matter. Quality health care is important to all of us. And we are going to make that happen in this area. Now and into the future. So I want to thank everyone who helped write the story. The story of the past and now the story into the future.”
While Tuesday’s ceremony was to celebrate an important first step in the development of the new comprehensive cancer care center, Bowling said planning also is continuing for the new emergency room project for Bluefield.
“It’s still moving along very well,” Bowling said of the plans for the new ER in Bluefield. “We’ve had no snags, no hiccups with that project. We’re expecting it to be right on schedule. It should be finished the summer of 27, and so that’s a very big deal. Because we believe that staying on track with that. And once we get a little farther along on that project, we’ll probably do something out there to sort of talk more about the timeline.”
In addition to hospital staff, area officials also were on hand for Tuesday’s ceremony, including Princeton City Manager Mike Webb, county commissioners Brian Blankenship and Bill Archer, and others.
Read more from the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, here