The Avera Cancer Institute Aberdeen is getting a new home. Officials broke ground Tuesday for the Coach Don and Carmen Meyer Center of Excellence.
The new $13.5 million facility brings the hospital’s cancer care services under one roof. Todd Forkel is the Regional President and CEO of Avera St. Luke’s. He says the facility will also house a new linear accelerator, allowing for more precise radiation treatment. He says it’s important for people in the Aberdeen area to have access to care close to home.
“We’re 200 miles really in all directions from a major center as we would call it in the Dakotas,” Forkel says. “And Avera’s hallmark is care is best delivered local. And so if we can help it, from patients having to travel, it’s great to have their sister hospital in Sioux Falls, but we want to have the ability for patients to stay here. And we think that helps not only in the care delivery but also the healing process.”
Forkel says designers asked former and current patients for input when creating the space. He says construction on the more than 27 thousand square foot building begins next week, and doctors should begin seeing patients in the facility by November first of next year.