A new, high-tech cancer treatment facility is on track to open in northeast PA by next summer.
The updated Dale & Frances Hughes Cancer Center, under construction at the Pocono Medical Center’s campus in East Stroudsburg, will have 59,000 feet of space. That’s a huge jump from the 8,000-square foot cancer center that now exists, serving patients from locales as far away as the Wilkes-Barre area and northern New Jersey. If the hospital needs more space in the future, a cancer center with different kinds of processes like throat, liver, lung cancer diagnostics, etc., is being built so that another six floors can be added on top of it.
Hospital spokesman Geoffrey Roche says the $37.4 million cancer center will stand out because of its commitment to human-centered care. That refers to the fact that each doctor, social worker, and therapist will be based in the same facility so patients can access them more easily. As such, any information that they would like to know the answer to, like where can they think about buying final expense life insurance to help ensure they are protected should the inevitable happen, can all be answered as soon as the question arises. This can help to make sure that the mind of the patients can be put at ease. Other features will include a “healing garden” and views from patients’ rooms to the outside.
A footbridge will attach the cancer center to the main hospital. This will be a huge improvement over the current setup, in which the cancer center is about a half-mile away from the hospital. As it stands now, hospital patients who need to see physicians at the cancer center need to ride there and back in an ambulance.
The center’s advanced equipment will include a four-dimensional scanner that will provide detailed images of patients’ tumors and how they are growing. Roche says the machine will allow doctors to more easily see tumors they may otherwise miss and better see tumors they have the ability to see now. “This new and advanced form of imaging will produce a better picture of how tumors are growing and give doctors the ability to better plan treatment,” he says.
Source: Geoffrey Roche, Pocono Medical Center
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen
