Construction is set to being on the new McClaren-Flint Hospitality House in Flint Township, Mich., which will work in tandem with the soon-to-be-completed Proton Therapy Center next door.
The new $70 million Proton Therapy Center is about 90 percent complete, according to MLive.com. When it is done, the medical complex will provide the very latest in cancer treatment technologies. Proton therapy is a relatively new technique that can precisely target tumors and cancer without affecting the healthy tissue around it.
"We're talking millimeter accuracy with treatment," Brent Wheeler, McLaren-Flint vice president, told the news source. "It's huge for us. We are very lucky… We'll be the first and only one in Michigan for a long time."
In addition to being the first treatment center of its kind in the state of Michigan, the Proton Therapy Center is just the 11th such facility in the nation. As the one most recently built, it will contain cutting-edge technology, including a new Cone Beam CT machine. This new equipment allows doctors to pinpoint the exact location of the tumor before starting treatment.
As construction crews continue to work on the Proton Therapy Center, excavators have broken ground on the nearby Hospitality House. This $8 million 38,000-square-foot building is somewhat similar to a hotel, and will provide a place for patients to stay as they recover from therapy at the center next door.
The Hospitality House will feature 32 rooms and allow some patients the ability to recover in relaxation and comfort. More than 800 people are expected to be treated daily at the new Proton Therapy Center, and more than half of those will be traveling from more than two hours away. When construction was first beginning in 2009, MLive.com reported it was expected to create more than 1,000 construction jobs.
The cost of running the Hospitality House will be reduced thanks to a partnership with Central Michigan University. Due to an agreement with the school's hospitality program, budding hotel managers will be staffing the premises and running the day-to-day operations. A team of volunteers will help round out the staff at the new center.
"It's great to be able to finally call this something of my own," said Garrett Holmes, a CMU junior who will be the first resident manager at the facility. "I want [the patients] to feel like they've known me for a very long time [and] that is their home away from home."
Among the amenities in the new Hospitality House are a massive kitchen that the families can use, places for support groups to meet, and a garden in the back.
