Allegheny Health Network's new cancer center in Butler opens today

Allegheny Health Network’s new cancer center in Butler is opening today.

The 34,00-square-foot facility in the Pullman Business Park is part of a $300 million investment the health system is making to expand access to cancer treatment in the region.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled from 12:30 to 2 p.m. on Friday at thePullman Business Park located at 160 Hollywood Drive in Butler Township.

The new cancer center will offer clinical and support services including radiation oncology, medical oncology and infusion therapy, nutritional counseling, social services and access to clinical trials.

The $21 million hospital in Butler is the second facility specializing in cancer treatment the health system has opened in as many months.

On Feb. 13, the health system opened a $35 million addition to its cancer and imaging institutes in Monroeville.

AHN also has opened, or is in the process of constructing, cancer centers in Beaver, Hempfield and at St. Vincent Hospital in Latrobe. An $80 million Cancer Institute Academic Center also is being built at Allegheny General Hospital in the North Side.

The health systems and its parent company Highmark Health are in the midst of a $1 billion worth of expansion projects that include small hospitals in McCandless, Hempfield, Harmer and Brentwood.

The additional health care facilities in the region are being built to help address lapses in the availability of medical treatment that will occur when a state-brokered consent decree expires in June.

The consent decree was negotiated after the contract between Highmark and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center expired in 2014.

The decree allowed some Highmark customers to continue using UPMC doctors and hospitals until next June.