“Its is great to see you here today as we celebrate another step forward for Southeast Health of Stoddard County,” said Southeast Health of Stoddard County CEO Sue Ann Williams. “With the open house showcasing our new Specialty Clinic.”

Southeast Health of Stoddard County cut the ribbon Thursday afternoon on its new Specialty Clinic. Area residents can receive cancer treatment locally.

SoutheastHEALTH President and CEO Ken Bateman speaks at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

“As SoutheastHealth continues to grow with service offerings,” said Williams. “There is potential to bring additional services to the clinic, including gastroenterology, orthopedics and more.”

SoutheastHealth President and CEO Ken Bateman stepped to the mic next.

“In a little over eight years I have really seen this facility transform throughout those years,” said Bateman. “As you know SoutheastHeath acquired this facility in 2013. As part of this partnership we have committed to adding new services, new facilities, new technologies throughout the years.”

“And most notably some of those improvements have been a new Southeast Medical Plaza which is linked to the hospital,” Bateman continued. “We added a new emergency department, which has substantially increased our ability to serve this community with higher volumes.”

Bateman said the emergency department saw 13,000 visits in 2022. Bateman pointed out the new voluntary Behavioral Health Center as well. The Behavioral Health Center has 16 private rooms.

Bateman said the hospital is in the process of installing a new cat scan/MRI unit.

“Overall through the years we have a total of $27 million in new facilities, technologies and improvements for this campus,” said Bateman. “And we are just getting started.”

Bateman extended a special thanks to Matt and Marissa Mills for the donation in honor of their grandparents C.B. Adams and W.L. Conner which helped make the clinic a reality.

Dr. Andrew Moore then spoke about the clinic itself.

“This is a special day,” said Moore. “Next month will be nine years since we started coming to Dexter for our oncology specialty clinic.”

Moore said it started as every other Thursday morning with maybe 4 to 6 treatments a month. Now that number has grown to every Tuesday and Thursday with two providers averaging 40 treatments per week.

Moore said this includes chemotherapy, immunotherapy, with around 80 patients seen per week.

“The growth is there, but that tells you the need is there,” said Moore. “When we look at our geographic region, not only nation wide but even in the state, we are all aware that our cancer rates are high. But if you look at a heat map of the United States, per capita cancer rates, we are higher here in Southeast than anywhere in the United States.”

Moore said the hospital had patients from 13 counties in Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas. He said the new clinic is saving the patients 100 to 200 miles round trip.

“Unfortunately life does not stop for these patients because they get a cancer diagnosis,” said Mooer. “Or they need treatments, the gas money they save or the time their friends and loved ones don’t have to take off work to take them to treatments, those are the intangibles we cannot measure.”

“I would like to echo Mr. Bateman’s points and thanks to Matt and Marissa,” said Moore. “Because I don’t know of more immediately impactful dollars that could have been spent in this region than to do what you allowed us to do.”

The new clinic will offer hematology, oncology and lab services. Oncology services were available at the hospital but the services were located in different areas across the campus. The patients had to go to the main building to register and get labs. The patient would then go to a separate building in Doctor’s Park to see the doctor and back to the main building for their infusion. Then a few hours later the patient would go home. The new clinic will centralize these services in one location, easing the stress and process on the patients.

The new clinic features a lab, exam rooms in which to see the doctor and infusion rooms.

“I don’t know how some of our patients did it,” said Moore. “It shows how tough they are, our staff pushing wheelchairs up the hill. It is amazing we were able to do the treatments that we did.”

“This really is much needed, will be so utilized,” Moore continued. “I just thank everybody that is here in the community. Dexter always amazes me with the amount of community support.”

Moore then acknowledged a long time patient whom Moore said made it her life’s mission to see this clinic become a reality. Moore said the patient learned the clinic was going to be a reality prior to her death.

“She is smiling down on us today,” said Moore. “And she is loving this.”

Pictured are from left to right front row only: Jennifer Ewert, Director of Southeast Cancer Center, Matt and Marissa Mills, Dr. Andrew Moore, Ken Bateman, President and CEO of SoutheastHEALTH, Dr. Reza Jalal, Sue Ann Williams, Southeast Health Center of Stoddard County CEO, Dr. Matt Janzow, SoutheastHEALTH Chief Medical Officer, and Mayor Jason Banken.