BY JIM HALL
Mary Washington Hospital has won permission from the state to build a new cancer center.
The center will be located on the hospital campus in Fredericksburg and will be in addition to the hospital's Cancer Center of Virginia on State Route 3 in Spotsylvania County.
The project will cost more than $11 million. Construction will begin this summer and is expected to be completed next year.
Mary Washington tried twice before, in 2006 and 2009, to get state approval for an expansion of its cancer-treatment services. The state rejected both proposals as unneeded.
This time, Dr. Karen Remley, state health commissioner, changed her mind.
Remley issued a "certificate of public need," on Feb. 4. She said that the Fredericksburg region will soon need more cancer-fighting capability, since the Cancer Center of Virginia will be at or near capacity. Mary Washington officials learned of her decision last week.
The Cancer Center did about 15,000 treatments in 2008. In the past, the state has said that it expected the center to be doing about 16,000 treatments a year before it approved an expansion.
"We're very pleased that she looked to the future when she was considering our application," said hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Allenbaugh.
Remley's decision is a setback for the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center and the Mid-Rivers Cancer Center in Montross. Both had opposed Mary Washington.
"We were very disappointed by the commissioner's decision. We don't believe it was the right decision," said Tim Tobin, chief executive officer of the new hospital, yesterday.
The new Spotsylvania hospital tried unsuccessfully to file a competing application for a cancer center of its own. Also, its employees and supporters testified against Mary Washington at a public hearing in September.
Spotsylvania supporters said that cancer patients should have a choice of providers.
"We are very committed to developing our own cancer program," Tobin said. "We feel that it would be inappropriate to expect our cancer patients to have to be transferred to Mary Washington's program."
Tobin also said that Remley's decision could delay Spotsylvania's plans.
"The commissioner has shown that she can have some latitude in how she interprets the state medical facility plan," Tobin said. "I'm hoping she will continue to exercise that latitude."
Mary Washington's new center will be similar to the Cancer Center of Virginia in many ways, but also different.
Both centers will offer radiation therapy. More than half of all cancer patients get radiation as a part of their cancer care. Patients usually visit a cancer center dozens of times over several months for their treatments.
Both centers will use linear accelerators and CT scanners to do the work.
But the new center also will bring stereotactic radiosurgery to the region. This is an advanced technique used mainly to treat cancers and abnormalities of the brain.
"We're going to be expanding its scope to tumors of the spine, lung and other sites," Allenbaugh said.
Many of these patients now go to the University of Virginia Health System for their treatments.
Several testified at last year's public hearing that the trip to Charlottesville was expensive, time-consuming and physically draining.
"I have worked with physicians from other health systems who have performed stereotactic radiosurgery on my patients," said Dr. Jeffery Poffenbarger, a neurosurgeon at Mary Washington, in a statement.
"We will be able to care for these patients on Mary Washington's medical campus," Poffenbarger added.
The U.Va. hospital has agreed to help Mary Washington set up its stereotactic program, according to the commissioner's decision.
Jim Hall: 540/374-5433
Email: jhall@freelancestar.com