(CARMEL, Ind.) – IU Health is on track to open its second cancer center next January.
A topping-off ceremony Thursday completes the outer skeleton of the Joe and Shelly Schwarz Cancer Center at IU North in Carmel. When the interior is complete, it’ll accommodate 22 chemotherapy patients at once. It’ll also include 20 examination rooms, five consultation rooms, and PET and CT scanners.
IU Health already has the Simon Cancer Center at its downtown campus. But medical director Sara Jo Grethlein says that can be too long a trip for northside patients, who then find themselves shuttling between one northside medical center for chemo and another for radiation, sometimes on the same day. The $55 million Schwarz Center will bring both under the same roof, along with surgical services. And Grethlein says the goal is to create one-stop shopping for all the services cancer patients need, including counseling, art and music therapy, a dietitian, and immediate assistance for the side effects of chemo and radiation.
The Schwarz Center will have 30 oncologists and surgeons, including specialists in gynecological and thoracic cancers.
Construction crews lower the final beam of the Schwarz Cancer Center into place (Photo: Eric Berman/WIBC)
