CHICO, Calif. — Chico’s Enloe Medical Center says the Northstate has one of the highest disease rates in the state, unfortunately including cancer. But strides are being made to keep treatment and its patients here at home.
By the end of 2025, Enloe anticipates a nearly 100,000 square-foot comprehensive cancer center to stand tall on 13 acres of donated land inside Meriam Park. It comes with a price tag of up to $120 million.
Friday, Enloe officials celebrated a milestone: the first $10.5 million raised through the Enloe Comprehensive Cancer Campaign. Roughly 100 donors gave to the cause, including Sierra Grossman, tri-chair of the campaign, who donated over $100,000 with her family.
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“The philanthropic part of this, it’s just a drop in the bucket,” says Grossman. “We don’t know the after impacts of the Camp Fire. I think that’s something that we’ll see in my child’s generation further down the road, so why not try to get the preventative services as soon as we can?”
The destructive 2018 blaze obliterated 30% of Butte County’s health care infrastructure, says medical center officials, leaving a gap in cancer treatment that lingers nearly four years later. It’s part of the reason 60% of Butte County’s cancer patients need to travel to Davis, San Francisco, Stanford and beyond for specific treatments and clinical trials.
But the center’s new director, Dr. Sam Mazj, says the new varieties of care that the state-of-the-art facilities will provide could eliminate that dilemma for the entire Northstate and enhance the cancer treatments that the center already provides.
“Not everybody has the means to go far away, and the quality of life obviously changes,” says Mazj. “The very important initiative is we have more space for patients that could not come here and get care Our services, including infusion treatment for chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgical oncology, are very specialized treatments. They already exist but we want to make it better and more effective, less disruptive and less toxicity.”
It’s what Enloe CEO Mike Wiltermood says will double the number of cancer patients served a year to an anticipated 2,000 people. The expanded services, he says, will also help detect and respond to cancer sooner.
“We’ve got a high incidence of cancer in this area. Unfortunately, we have a high mortality rate,” says Wiltermood. “We have some great services here in Northern California, but for some of the clinical trials that people want to participate in, they got to go to other organizations.”
But what about staffing it? The CEO says 400 professionals will be needed to operate the center and 30 new physicians must be hired every year to account for those who retire. But, with those already working in the 36,000-square-foot Enloe Regional Cancer Center, he believes attracting new talent to work here will not be a problem.
“We already have a great medical staff and as we recruit people, other disciplines, they see the kind of stuff that we have, that’s a real draw,” says Wiltermood. “Just the prospect of this building has brought in many new clinicians to the area. Once we start turning dirt, I think it’s just going to be that much more effective.
Enloe is intending to break ground for the new center in late 2023 and accept its first patients in late 2025.
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