FALL RIVER – Southcoast Hospitals Group said last week that it will open a satellite oncology location at its Charlton Memorial Hospital site in Fall River, offering both radiation therapy and medical oncology and operating as an extension of Southcoast’s new cancer center in Fairhaven, which is still under construction.
Charlton’s oncology program will actually be operational first, the hospital system said, because the Fairhaven site will take longer to be completed. Radiation therapy services in Fall River will be added at the Charlton campus, and the existing medical oncology services currently centered at Charlton’s Jarabek Center will be expanded and upgraded.
“Southcoast’s patients have come to depend on us to provide all of their care by increasing access to services, upgrading our facilities and offering the latest technology,” said John B. Day, president & CEO of Southcoast Health System, in a news release.
The oncology satellite will be in the Mitchell Therapy Building on Charlton’s main campus. The entrance is accessible off Prospect Street in the back of the hospital and will have designated parking with valet parking available. Rehabilitation services currently provided there will move to a new location, the hospital system said.
The Fairhaven site will serve more patients and offer more services, but both will offer comprehensive care, said Keith A. Hovan, president & CEO of Southcoast Hospitals Group.
The Fairhaven facility, being built off Interstate 195 and Route 240, will be convenient for patients from the greater New Bedford and greater Wareham regions, the hospital system said. But because the incidence of cancer is very high across the region, a second location was deemed to be important.
The South Coast region has 582 new cancer cases annually per 100,000 people versus 515 new cases for Massachusetts as a whole. This amounts to 380 more new cancer cases per year in the South Coast region than the Massachusetts average.
Southcoast Health System is a community-based health delivery system with multiple access points, offering an integrated continuum of health services throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and the East Bay of Rhode Island, including the Southcoast Hospitals Group: Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham. For more information, go to www.southcoast.org.
