A $65 million investment into a new cancer center in Greer was announced Tuesday by the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. Meanwhile, a $15 million capital campaign through the Spartanburg Regional Foundation is underway with $9.5 million already raised.
The expansion was reported in January at the Pelham Medical Center when SRHS officials told GreerToday.com the multi-story world-class Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute and the medical center campus would be connected with a glass bridge over Westmoreland Road.
“We are investing in physicians, technology and facilities to create the cancer center of the future, ensuring our community has access to the very best cancer care right here in the Upstate,” CEO, Bruce Holstien of SRHS, said. “We need this new facility to meet the growing demand for cancer care in our region and to continue the vision we have to be a top cancer provider, not just locally but across the country.”
The economic impact brought to the Upstate is projected to be nearly $100 million for the rapidly growing Greer area, according to SRHS.
Drs. Jay Bearden and Julian Josey announced the expansion and the impact it will make with cancer patients. “This work is a ministry. This is the most important thing I have done,” Josey said. “I have a strong passion to see this happen in my lifetime.”
Patients at the Gibbs Center will be on the same floor of their cancer diagnosis with the imaging, pathologist and all the specialists treating their specific cancer.
Jimmy Gibbs said he has dreamed of the cancer complex becoming as world renown as the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. ”I don’t know if I will live long enough to see it but, until the day I die I am going to do my best to make it happen,” Gibbs said. “This could be another Mayo.”
With cancer treatment and support services at one location, the new facility will also house research, education and a healing environment for patients. Physicians will collaborate to incorporate technology across the fields of research and treatment.
Gibbs physicians are now taking an academic approach to cancer care with an invested emphasis on clinical, translational and basic research.
“Gibbs is known for its care and personalized medicine, and the center will rapidly emerge and develop into an innovation center,” said Dr. Timothy Yeatman, Director and President of Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute. “Novel ideas and new research are already being created, tested, and distributed to the community in a rapid fashion.”
Gibbs also provides the community with easy access to clinical trials.
Holstien said 35 percent of the patients at the Gibbs Cancer Center in Spartanburg were from outside the common market. “We are attracting cancer patients from far and away. It’s truly become a destination cancer center.”
Five million people are within one hour of the Gibbs Cancer Center in Spartanburg, Holstien said.
The new cancer center in Greer is three miles from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, allowing ease of access for patients flying into the area.
“We think we have a great opportunity with GSP International airport to help bring, not only new business to the hospital, but patients from all over the country to a facility that is going to be a state of the art cancer center,” said Dave Edwards, President/CEO at GSP.
“It brings additional meaning to what we do at the airport and to what we do in transporting people, because we are not only transporting people for business or pleasure, we are transporting people for key medical treatment,” Edwards said.
Marsha Gibbs, foundation donor with her husband, Jimmy, co-chairs the fundraising campaign with Lindsay Webster, founding donor of Bearden Josey Center for Breast Health, Bearden and Josey.