The East Campus location of West Cancer Center is “our chance to reinvent care for the high disease burden that cancer inflicts on our citizens,” David Stern, MD, the Robert Kaplan Executive Dean of the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), said Tuesday at the opening ceremony for the new facility in Germantown.
The $65 million, 123,251-square-foot building at 7945 Wolf River Boulevard is the product of an innovative collaboration between West Clinic, Methodist Healthcare and UTHSC to bring comprehensive cancer care, education and research to the region and beyond.
The partnership, which began in 2012, magnifies the strengths and expertise of each of the institutions to improve patient care, elevate training for the next generation of clinicians, and aid in recruiting research leaders from all over the country to Memphis.
“This is the beginning of a new day for cancer care in the Mid-South,” Gary Shorb, chief executive officer of Methodist Healthcare, told the elected officials, health care professionals, cancer survivors and community members attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “We have developed a great platform of trust, and it is through that platform we are going to transform cancer care.”
The new center brings together multispecialty services — including medical, surgical, diagnostic and radiation oncology, genetics, pain management, nutrition, palliative care, clinical research and others — under one roof for the first time in Memphis. The collaborative environment is designed to make cancer care more accessible, organized and easier for patients, enabling them to stay in Memphis for treatment, instead of traveling to institutions in other cities.
“Four years ago, we came together to give world-class cancer care to Memphis, the region and the nation,” said Lee Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, executive director of West Cancer Center. “We provide everything in this building.”
West Cancer Center Chief Executive Officer Erich Mounce said the state-of-the-art facility is expected to serve 35,224 patients in the next 12 months, deliver more than 18,000 radiation treatments and treat more than 10,000 with chemotherapy. “This is why we stand here today,” he said. “The numbers are staggering.”
UTHSC is privileged to be a founding partner in the West Cancer Center, Dr. Stern told the crowd. “It’s not only a grand opportunity, it’s also a great responsibility. This requires bringing the best doctors in the United States together with the best technology to develop programs that offer expertise comparable to what one could find in Houston or New York City.”
For more information, visit https://www.westcancercenter.org.