Northern Arizona Healthcare broke ground on its new $39.5 million comprehensive cancer center at the Verde Valley Medical Center campus on Thursday, March 25, with about 250 community members in attendance.
“This is personal to each and every one of us,” NAH Chief Operating Officer Bo Cofield said. “We know we can’t run from cancer. We cannot keep it out of our lives altogether, as at some point in our lives, each of us will be affected by this disease, either personally or by supporting a friend, a family member, a neighbor or a colleague through the trials and tribulations of that diagnosis. I’m so pleased that today is the day that our plan for this new approach to cancer care … will become a reality.”
Approximately 70% of oncology patients are closer to Cottonwood than Sedona’s current cancer center, according to NAH, so the goal is to reduce travel time, according to NAH.
“It will ease the burden of long distance travel and consolidate service in a kind of one-stop shop that can potentially make treatment more effective by lessening the stress of receiving it,” Cottonwood Mayor Ann Shaw said.
No major hurdles are anticipated with the city of Cottonwood. During its March 3 meeting, the Cottonwood City Council authorized a partnership with NAH for grant application for $500,000 from the Gila River Indian Community — funded by gambling profits — to offset construction costs.
“This community means so much to me as a native to the Verde Valley,” NAH oncology provider and family nurse practitioner Tarra Young said. “One hundred years ago, our beloved grandmother was born in the Jerome hospital on the hill above us. Today, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude to be here, not only as a health care provider, but as someone whose roots run deep in this community.”
Also among the speakers was Dr. Deborah Lindquist, the first medical oncologist in Northern Arizona, who began her practice on Feb. 9, 1989, in Cottonwood, after calling hospitals across the region and finding none had an oncologist on staff. She expressed her pride about the construction.
“NAH is people, people whom you can trust, people who give you hope when yours is at a minimum, and people who became not just nameless caregivers, but advocates and friends and who make a bad day brighter,” said Doug Von Gausig. a former Clarkdale mayor and current NAH patient.
Construction is anticipated for completion in June 2027, with a September 2027 opening, at which point NAH’s cancer services in Sedona will be relocated to VVMC to centralize services.
NAH has no plans to shutter the Sedona Emergency Department, which NAH renamed the William and Deborah Johnson Emergency Department during a March 11 ceremony.
“We’ll keep the emergency department, and we’re working on what our plans are for what will replace the current cancer services within that building,” Cofield said. “We are contemplating things like a slight expansion of the emergency department, increased radiology services, but we are looking at more specialty care as well — however that is to be determined.”
