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YVMC debuts new Jan Bishop Cancer Center

Teresa Ristow
There are private and semi-private treatment rooms at the new Jan Bishop Cancer Center inside Yampa Valley Medical Center. Each room has a view of the slopes of Mount Werner, along with room-darkening blinds to lessen the sunlight if desired.
John F. Russell

If you go:

What: Public open house for Jan Bishop Cancer Center

When: 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19

Where: Outpatient Pavilion at Yampa Valley Medical Center, 1100 Central Park Drive

— Yampa Valley Medical Center leaders hope the new Jan Bishop Cancer Center will be a place patients feel at ease, despite facing the frightening realities of cancer.

The center, which opens to patients Monday, Jan. 30, is bright and spacious and brings all cancer-related services under the same roof for the first time in the history of YVMC’s modern medical campus.

“It’s like a dream come true,” said Jan Fritz, director of cancer services at YVMC, Tuesday, just before a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new center.



The center was shown first to current and recent patients earlier this month, and then Tuesday, to donors who contributed to make the project a reality.

The cancer center is part of a $14.3 million project that included renovating the hospital’s outpatient pavilion and building a new 14,000-square-foot, two-story addition, with the cancer center on its top floor.



The YVMC Foundation raised $3.8 million toward the project.

“We’ve been scattered throughout the building,” Fritz said. “It will now be much easier for patients and their experience.”

The center includes four private and four semi-private chemotherapy infusion bays, most with impressive views of Mount Werner. Depending on their preference, a patient might choose a room with more privacy, a semi-private bay where they can visit with other patients or a bay that opens up to a large family and friends waiting area.

“It’s all about providing spaces that are best for each patient,” said Heather Rose, manager of marketing and communications for YVMC.

Other features of the center include four patient rooms, a spacious nurses station and a consultation or conference room adorned with a childhood painting of former leukemia patient Bryan Fletcher, along with a framed competition bib from his visit to Sochi, Russia, during the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The public will be given a chance to see inside the center Thursday, during an open house from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Outpatient Pavilion, 1100 Central Park Drive. Tours will be given and remarks will take place at 6 p.m.

During the donor open house Tuesday, YVMC CEO Frank May thanked Joe Bishop, who made a generous donation to the YVMC Foundation’s fundraising campaign to build the center in honor of his sister.

“Joe has been very generous to the hospital, and he has really been the driving force behind getting this facility built,” May said. “He really wanted to make sure that she was memorialized with this facility.”

To reach Teresa Ristow, call 970-871-4206, email tristow@SteamboatToday.com or follow her on Twitter @TeresaRistow


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