McCreery Cancer Center

The cancer center at Ottumwa Regional Health Center in Southeast Iowa is over 20 years old, but when it came time to purchase a new linear accelerator, the hospital’s directors decided to build an entirely new cancer center to focus on patient care in the region.

Ted Wolfe, Executive Director of the new McCreery Cancer Center at Ottumwa Regional Health Care, worked with the architects, physicians, therapists, and patients to create a center truly responsive to the mind, body and spirit of all involved.

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In therapeutic settings, the company’s proprietary radiology lighting content-based system imbues isolated clinical interiors with a deeply healing perceived connection to open skies.

Mr. Wolfe said, “Nature naturally makes people feel better. So, where we could, we installed large windows throughout the building, and where we couldn’t, like in our linear accelerator vault, which has a six-foot thick concrete ceiling, we put in the Sky Factory Luminous SkyCeiling™ over the top of the linac.

This makes feel people feel a lot more comfortable, it does a tremendous amount to remove the anxiety that a patient has, first of all just from having cancer, but also being subjected to such high energy that’s moving around them, making strange noises that they’re not accustomed to.”

“The mixture of the wood flooring and the warm, comforting colors that we have on the walls, and then the Luminous SkyCeiling — all come together to make the patient feel better. And when the patients are more relaxed, they heal faster.”

“Oh, it’s beautiful. It’s very beautiful. It really is. It is very realistic. The Luminous SkyCeiling™ is really quite beautiful; I mean it really makes you feel like you’re outside. It couldn’t be more natural unless we could make the clouds move and snow, or have rain come out of them once in awhile for effect. It’s a very natural looking ceiling. It looks like you’re really outside.”

“Where we’re going to find the value is in the comfort that our patients have and their expression of satisfaction that they receive as a result of feeling relaxed. We have to make sure that the patient is secured when they’re on the linac table. We use molds to hold them in place so that their position is constantly duplicated every time they come for a treatment session. They’re physically restrained from moving. But the Luminous SkyCeiling relieves that tension, and it’s that tension that they no longer have that makes them feel more comfortable.”

“The service from The Sky Factory was outstanding. The SkyCeiling was here when we needed to have it here, and on a very tight schedule. We were supposed to break ground and have the building open in 14 months, we had it open in 10, we really adhered to our critical path in putting the building together, including the finishing touches. So, it was here when it was supposed to be. It’s a quality product. We haven’t had any services issues.”

“I’ve given hundreds of people tours and everyone is awestruck by the beauty of that SkyCeiling. We’re always looking to increase funding for the cancer center. One of things I’ve joked about doing is charging people $150 when we have a tornado warning so that they can find a safe place in the linac vault and enjoy the view of the nice sky.”