New Cancer Center Shown Off

After years in the making, University of Missouri Health Care is set to open the new home to Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. The $50-million cancer center is part of the new $200-million University Hospital patient tower. MU health care officials say this isn’t only going to improve patient care; it’s also going to add 97 jobs to the area.For several years local lawmakers have come close to getting the votes needed to get it passed in the House and Senate, but it always seemed to fall apart in the last minute. University health care leaders took matters into their own hands and found enough money in their general revenue to fund the project and get everything they wanted in the facility.From some of the windows of the new cancer center the old building can still be seen. They say at one time they would have to see patients at the old building, send them to university hospital for surgery and back for a checkup. Officials tell ABC 17 News for the first time in 13 years Ellis Fischel will have all of those services in one building again. They say not only is more convenient for patients, but it also creates better care for them.”Having all of our facilities in one location allows those doctors to carry out comprehensive cancer care,” Ellis Fischel medical Director Dr. Paul Dale says. “Meaning that we can talk to each other we can all see the patient in collaboration with each other.”The new tower will add 90-private high-tech patient rooms, along with six operating rooms and room to expand. Doctors tell us this is now more important than ever because they’re seeing an increased amount of patients. In 2011 they saw more than 1,300 new patients which was 9% more than the previous year. They noticed this trend and decided they couldn’t wait any longer on the state legislature to give them the money.”We kind of got to a point where we couldn’t keep waiting, and we were interested in having the center continue to expand it and improve, and we just decided we’re going to have to figure out how we’re going to do it on our own,” MU health Care C.E.O. Mitch Wasden explains.They say having the state of the art hospital will make it easier for them to find and cure cancers before they get to advanced stages. “All of this technology is certainly advanced over what we had before. Not only that we’ve got brand new operating rooms, we’ve got brand new equipment in those,” Dale says.Hospital officials aren’t sure what’s happening to the old building. They believe it might be used for office space.If you would like to see the new facility, you have the opportunity Tuesday afternoon from 4 P.M. – 6 P.M.