Mission Cancer + Blood’s care model focuses on independence as Ankeny campus opens

Mission Cancer + Blood is growing its Central Iowa footprint.

About 7,000 patients visit one of Mission’s clinics each month at its three busiest campuses, all in Des Moines. A fair amount of those patients travel from Ankeny, but this could soon change.

The Iowa-based oncology and hematology care provider with 19 other outreach locations opened its new Ankeny clinic on Monday north of Prairie Trail at 1950 S.W. Magazine Drive.

Other outreach sites include MercyOne, UnityPoint Health and the Iowa Clinic in the Des Moines area.

The Ankeny center is an expansion and Mission Cancer’s first stand-alone clinic, according to a news release. There are seven providers scheduled to staff the 11,000-square-foot facility that will be open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays, the release said.

Up to three providers will be on-site per day, Mission Cancer told the Business Record.

“Patients have been requesting this for a long time,” Mission Cancer + Blood CEO Phil Stover said. “It’s going to be great to be in one of the fastest-growing suburbs in the United States to give patients the option to be treated in Ankeny.”

The Ankeny center offers oncology and hematology services, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, a full-service laboratory, genetic counseling, access to clinical trials and supportive care services, according to the release.

When Mission was founded by a small group of physicians in 1981, patients with cancer and blood disorders lacked access to specialized care and could face long drive times to seek treatment, according to the organization’s website.

“We’re proud of the fact that we treat so many Iowans so close to their homes,” Stover said. “Through their journey, they get to know the entire team from nurses to the scheduler. That’s what sets a community oncology and hematology practice like us apart from university systems or large health care systems.”

Iowa has the second-highest incidence rate of cancer cases in the country, according to the Iowa Cancer Registry’s 2023 annual report that Mission Cancer cited in the release. That’s 20,800 people in the state. An estimated 6,200 Iowans will die from cancer in 2023, but the number of survivors is growing — estimated to be 164,270 as of 2018.

Polk County is estimated to have 13% of Iowa’s new cancer cases, with 2,710 diagnoses in 2023, the release said. There are nearly 20,000 people who will be living with or have had cancer in Polk County. According to Mission Cancer, the same 2023 report found Iowa to be the only state in the U.S. with a significant increase in incidences from 2015 to 2019.

Dr. Bradley Hiatt, a hematology oncology specialist with Mission Cancer + Blood, sees about 22 patients per day and is responsible for more. He said Mission’s independence allows it to be “more nimble” and keep the focus on its patients.

“It streamlines the process. Everything is a team structure from our entire practice,” Hiatt told the Business Record. “That helps us take care of authorizations and get scans quickly. We can handle disability and leave assistance.”

Joe Fisher is a freelance contributing writer to the Business Record.