The Kettering Cancer Care at the Carruthers Center, a more than $5 million renovation, is the fourth such center for Kettering Health Network, according to Elizabeth Koelker, KHN’s executive director of cancer services.
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“We know that cancer patients have very long, involved treatment processes, sometimes requiring that they come every single day, so to provide that care close to home is part of our mission to provide care to the communities that we serve,” Koelker said during a Monday afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony.
The design for the center accommodates new services and technology and follows a model that was designed for patients by patients.
That model began during the development of the new Kettering Cancer Center on the campus of Kettering Medical Center in Kettering. To transform the cancer care experience, Kettering Health Network created a patient advisory council to involve cancer patients and survivors in the center’s development — from the facility’s design to processes and treatments implemented throughout the network.
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Fort Hamilton is under the auspices of Kettering Health Network, a Dayton-based, not-for-profit network of eight hospitals, 11 emergency departments, 120 outpatient facilities, nearly 12,000 employees and 2,100 physicians serving southwest Ohio.
As part of Kettering Health Network, Fort Hamilton Hospital cancer service providers can partner with world-renowned cancer care experts at the Kettering Cancer Center, making Fort Hamilton Hospital the cancer destination in Butler County where area patients can receive specialized medical and radiation oncology treatment close to home, health network officials said.
The center bears the family name of Pat and Donna Carruthers, parents of Ohio Rep. Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, who spoke at Monday’s ceremony.
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Carruthers detailed the battle against colon cancer fought by her late father, Ralph "Pat" Carruthers, a struggle which included numerous surgeries and how her late mother, Donna Carruthers, would tend to his medical needs and take him to various facilities out of the area for treatment.
“She took care of him during that period of time, but how fortunate would it have been if it was right in our backyard, right?” she said.
Cancer treatment is about not only treating the whole person, but also that person’s family “and nobody does it better than Kettering,” Carruthers said.
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Kettering Health Network’s hospitals are Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, as well as Kettering, Grandview, Sycamore, Southview, Greene Memorial, Soin and Kettering Behavioral Medicine.
Besides Fort Hamilton Hospital, Kettering Health Network operates 14 other entities in Butler County, including outpatient services and physicians in Hamilton, Middletown, Oxford, Fairfield, Fairfield Twp. and Ross Twp.
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