Beginning September 3rd there will be one less option for cancer patients in our area. Mission Health has announced that they will no longer provide chemotherapy infusions at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine. HCA/Mission made the decision to centralize chemotherapy services from Brevard, Franklin, Marion, and Spruce Pine to the Asheville clinic and move non-chemotherapy infusion services onto the hospital campuses. In Spruce Pine this will leave the independently operated Messino Cancer Center as the only option in the area for chemotherapy services. Messino Cancer Centers, was founded by a group of physicians who before the HCA purchase were part of Mission Health. Most of those physicians’ patients chose to follow their doctors and began using the Messino facilities. According to HCA spokesperson Nancy Lindell, “The additional care options have created less of a need for similar services at some of our facilities. We are confident in the excellent care options available for our community, whether it be our hospitals’ infusion center, chemotherapy at our Asheville location, or with other local care providers.”
