Right in the middle of $32 million worth of upgrades and expansions for the emergency department and its lauded E.C. Green Cancer Center, Jennie Stuart Health Hospital and its officials remain focused on what’s to come for the west Kentucky healthcare option.
At the forefront of messaging during Tuesday’s presentation with the Hopkinsville Rotary Club: Jennie Stuart Health Foundation Executive Director Tracey Clark — who brought along an update on the current $1.5 million capital campaign driven to provide a cutting edge in oncology treatment for those in the southeastern United States.
With the cancer center bolstering from 9,000 to 33,000 square feet of treatment and faculty space, Clark said the non-profit is already 70% to its fundraising goal, despite kicking off just three weeks ago.
And while the hospital remains responsible for its total price tag of $18 million, she further stated it was the job of the foundation and its creative efforts to provide maximum comforts and special expenses to change and impact the cancer center patient experience.
Clark also noted it was the foundation’s responsibility to be good stewards of in-kind donations, which she said could be in the form of things like direct gifts, stock gifts, patient programs, and also dispersed based on the donor’s intent.
She then took Rotarians on a virtual tour of the new center, which if all goes to plan is expected to be open to the public April 2024.
Valet parking, and a new entrance, make the beginning of the journey easier for visitors.
A comfortable waiting space includes distanced group seating, soothing water walls, and a hospitality station with a coffee bar.
Radiation oncology will host the Halcyon and TrueBeam linear accelerators, with expanded patient rooms and more physician office space, while medical oncology and hematology also has increased treatment bays.
She revealed that 12 new patient exam rooms will be added to the infusion clinic, alongside more office space, and a third medical oncologist is being sought. There will be 18 semi-private infusion bays and seven fully-private infusion bays, as well.
The most unheralded change, she said, is the integration of lab services with pharmacy services fully inside the cancer center — potentially shaving 1-or-more hours of free time for patients on treatment days.
Jennie Stuart Health Hospital and its cancer center immediately serve Todd, Christian and Trigg counties, but it also cares for patients from Caldwell, Montgomery, Logan and Hopkins counties, and is frequently referred patients from Vanderbilt University Medical Center out of Nashville for key and critical oncology needs.
Clark can be contacted by phone at (270) 887-0198, by e-mail at tpclark@jsmc.org, while checks and credit card donations can be made by mail to the Jennie Stuart Health Foundation at P.O. Box 608, Hopkinsville, KY, 42241, or online at jenniestuarthealth.org/foundation.