Dr. John Azar’s Commentary Supporting Radiation Oncology at Mon General Hospital (Dominion Post, Morgantown)

It is only a six-letter word, but hearing that word “cancer” can bring down even the toughest of us. As a physician, I spend a great deal of my time informing my patients that they have cancer and design a treatment plan that we all hope will rid them of this dangerous disease.

Comprehensive cancer care consists of three treatment options: Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Mon General Hospital currently provides surgery and chemotherapy and recently has asked the West Virginia Health Care Authority to approve its application to build a radiation oncology center at the hospital. It is one of two hospitals in Morgantown that care for cancer patients. In my opinion, this service is long overdue. Hospitals such as Mon General cannot properly provide cancer care without this basic component of therapy.

Currently, many cancer patients in our region are forced to travel to multiple locations for cancer treatment. This is not only a burden for the patient during a very stressful time, but a burden on those providing health care services who must track down test results and obtain critical updates about the patient’s condition.

Construction on this new radiation oncology center could be starting right now, but Mon General is having to go through a regulatory process to get “approval” from a government entity to build its center, even though the money to build and equip the facility has been donated by private sources. Health care providers, looking to establish a new line of service or expand their facilities, are required to file a certificate of need (CON) application and get approval from the state regulatory agency. The CON is a program aimed at managing health care facility costs and allowing coordinated planning of new services and constructions.

I am hopeful that the hospital’s CON application for its new radiation oncology center will be a quick, easy one for the HCA to decide, since the full funding for its construction and equipment is being provided by The Foundation of Mon General Hospital. This generous gift means the hospital will not incur any new debt or raise prices to cover the cost of the new state-of-the-art center.

Getting a quick approval is vital because Mon General Hospital’s decision to provide on-site radiation oncology therapy is long overdue and needed. Hospitals cannot properly provide cancer care without this basic component of therapy. Mon General Hospital cares for a large number of patients, and it is simply trying to provide a basic and necessary service, while trying to improve the care and the comfort of its patients.

The decision on the hospital’s CON application will be eagerly awaited. Let’s hope that the Health Care Authority and the CON process allows this cancer care to be provided to our patients and not get embroiled in some battle over turf or have the unintended result of stifling competition.

In this situation it is not a case of prestige. It is a case of caring for our patients in a basic, fundamental and convenient way.


JOHN AZAR, M.D., is a medical oncologist at Mon General Hospital’s Zelda Stein Weiss Cancer Center in Morgantown.

This article was originally published as a Guest Editorial:

Publication:The Dominion Post;

Date:Jul 21, 2013;

Section:Opinion;

Page Number:2-D