By Charles Owens, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON, W.Va. — The West Virginia University (WVU) Health System Board of Directors approved a nearly $400 million strategic capital budget on Wednesday that includes preliminary plans for a new $64.5 million comprehensive cancer center on the campus of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital and a new full-service emergency department for Bluefield.
In a press release issued by WVU medicine, the board said preliminary details of the Princeton and Bluefield project include $64,500,000 to build a comprehensive cancer center on the campus of WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital and to invest in Bluefield by relocating the full-service emergency department and imaging and lab services to the Bluefield Pavilion site campus and adding 10 observation beds, MRI, and ultrasound.
Cassandra Stalzer, director of marketing and public relations for WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital, said the new cancer center is a large construction project that will take several years to complete.
“It’s at the very beginning of the process,” Stalzer said Thursday.
Stalzer said the new cancer center will be an extension of the existing Parkview Center on the WVU-PCH campus.
In terms of Bluefield, the existing emergency department is currently located at the site of the former Bluefield Regional Medical Center, which is now the Bluefield State University Medical Education Center.