ANKENY, Iowa (AP) - An Iowa oversight board has reversed a previous decision and approved a Dubuque hospital’s request to buy $5.2 million worth of equipment for a new cancer center.
The State Health Facilities Council voted 3-1 at its meeting Wednesday to approve Mercy Medical Center-Dubuque’s proposal, the Telegraph Herald reported. The council, which is charged with preventing unnecessary duplication of medical services, had rejected Mercy’s request in October .
Mercy President and CEO Kay Takes emphasized at the meeting that cancer is an increasingly common disease that demands top-notch care.
“More than one in three of us will get cancer,” Takes said. “It is an extremely challenging disease, and we need to do everything we can to make treatments as accessible and as easy as possible.”
UnityPoint Health-Finley Hospital opposes the approval. The organization has argued that Wendt Cancer Center already provides the necessary services in Dubuque.
Ted Townsend, interim president and CEO of UnityPoint Health-Finley Hospital, said after the meeting that his organization is disappointed by the new decision. He said he expects Finley officials will appeal.
“We felt they made the right decision in October and the wrong decision tonight,” Townsend said.
Takes and other Mercy officials said area patients are receiving care that is “fragmented” and “not patient-centered.” The lack of radiation therapy services at Mercy forces patients to go back and forth between multiple facilities, they said.
“I am just so excited to bring comprehensive cancer care to people in Dubuque,” Takes said. “We feel it is long overdue.”
Mercy plans to start building its $25 million treatment center this year and open it in 2020.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.