Wasatch Back residents will now have increased access to cancer care closer to home.
The Park City hospital opened its new cancer center Aug. 20 with a ribbon cutting and facilities tour. The center offers 18 infusion bays, dedicated rooms for oncology appointments and radiation services.
Park City Hospital CEO Lori Weston said Intermountain Health fronted the $50 million facility cost while donors helped the project come to fruition.
“This is going to transform healthcare on the Wasatch Back,” she told KPCW. “To be able to take care of more patients and for these services … it’ll drive the acuity of care that we’re doing here and it just means the world to know that patients won’t have to travel down the canyon to get the care they need.”
That commute matters to Midway resident Jim Becker. He regularly had to drive over an hour each way for treatment in the Salt Lake valley.
He said the commute was especially taxing on days with radiation and chemotherapy, having to wait between treatments.
“If it was local to me here,” he said, “and I was able to go home instead of again going to a fast-food restaurants or walking around Costco or sitting in the library and just being around others, when all you want to do is go home and be done, that was difficult for me.”
The hospital estimates the facility will serve up to 1,500 patients each year.
Oncology director Tawnya Bowles said the facility will take a holistic approach to cancer care.
“Park City is going to be a model for what we call survivorship and supportive care services for patients,” Bowles said. “You know, focusing on the other needs around cancer treatment: diet, nutrition, mental health, financial navigation around the complexity of cancer treatment.”
Weston says bringing the facility to Round Valley allows residents across the Wasatch Back to care for their loved ones closer to home.
