ProMedica shows off work on new cancer center

FREMONT— Sandusky County residents got their first look at ProMedica Memorial Hospital’s $7 million cancer care center Tuesday, as the hospital opened the still under-construction Enterprise Drive facility up for a public tour.

Hospital officials stressed the need for the center in Sandusky County, where cancer is the second leading cause of death and cancer rates are projected to rise by up to 40 percent in the next decade.

Loved ones of cancer survivors and recovering cancer patients talked Tuesday about the virtue of having a center in Fremont that would eliminate the need for many families of driving to Toledo, Sandusky or Cleveland several times a week for treatment.

“This will be a huge success and a great help to those families,” former city auditor John Lauer said as he gave a personal testimonial about the effect cancer had on his wife and close family members.

Pam Jensen, ProMedica Memorial Hospital’s president, told visitors that the new center will feature seven chemotherapy bays, a treatment room and a Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator for radiation oncology and will have the capacity to treat 50 to 60 patients a day.

The center’s official name will be the Dorothy L. Kern Cancer Center. Jensen said the center is scheduled to be open in January 2016.

Kern and her husband, Tom, spoke briefly Tuesday night at the ceremony. The Kerns are the hospital’s cancer center executive campaign chairs.

Tom Kern said there had been $2.15 million in campaign pledges made toward the center, with a fundraising goal of $2.5 million for the project.

He called the center’s opening a “dream come true,” with the cancer care facility being run by a local hospital in Sandusky County.

“For the number of people impacted by cancer, it certainly deserves this kind of effort in every community,” Kern said.

ProMedica’s primary market consists of Sandusky County, Jensen said, with its secondary markets in Ottawa and Seneca counties.

The hospital’s 2013 community health needs assessment included statistics on incidence of cancer cases locally. The Sandusky County Ohio Department of Health statistics indicate that from 2000 to 2008, a total of 1,278 Sandusky County residents died from cancer, the second leading cause of death in the county during that time frame.

The Sandusky County incidence of cancer included 62 cases of lung and bronchus, 51 cases of breast, 48 cases of colon and rectum, 36 cases of prostate, and 22 cases of uterine, according to the assessment.

Jensen said the hospital would continue to focus on cancer prevention, early detection and treatment efforts in the community with the new center.

“We’re just looking to keep our patients right here in the community we live in,” Jensen said.

ProMedica plans to hire about 15 local nurses, lab workers and clerical staff for the center, with on-site physicians who will be ProMedica oncologists and Toledo-area radiation oncology physicians.

dacarson@gannett.com

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