Care that's close: UT Medical Center opens Alcoa site

The University of Tennessee Medical Center has expanded its presence in this community with the July opening of UT Cancer Services — Blount County, located at the corner of North Hall Road and Joule Street in Alcoa.

Kiwanis of Alcoa invited members of the UT team to its Aug. 29 meeting where Dr. John Bell, Dr. Felicia Wheeler and Dr. Eric Shrock explained details of the center. Bell serves as the director of the UT Cancer Institute. He came to East Tennessee 36 years ago from Alabama.

“I came here in 1988 because I saw an opportunity,” he told the crowd. UT had one oncologist at that time and was seeing about 600 new cases of cancer each year.

“Today, we have 20 medical oncologists,” he said, along with radiation oncologists and others. “We now see 3,800 new cancer cases each year.”

Wheeler grew up in Knoxville. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School and UT, receiving her medical training in Memphis. She said originally oncology was the last thing she wanted to get into.

But after it was discovered her family has a cancer mutation, she has come to know the journey on a personal level. “I know what it’s like to be on the other side of the table,” she said. Multiple family members receive treatment at the UT Cancer Institute.

The new cancer center in Alcoa has 15 exam rooms and seating for 18 chemotherapy patients in the infusion room, Wheeler described. A lab can perform most any test that’s needed, she said. There are social services and dietary services available here too as well as follow-up care.

Wheeler, Schrock and Dr. Matthew McCarty are the doctors at this Alcoa location, along with four nurse practitioners and support staff.

Schrock has been in Maryville for more than 20 years. He said UT has been providing services inside Blount County since 2012, starting out in a small office at East Tennessee Medical Group.

The goal over the next few years is to expand services in Blount County, these physicians said. Bell said it was UT’s intentions many years ago to provide care right here so patients don’t have to travel.

“These are the boots on the ground people that are in this (Alcoa) building,” he said. “We now have a facility here in Blount County that is an extension of what we do.”

Some procedures will only be available at the main campus, but more services will come to the Blount County center, Schrock said. The main campus is now able to perform bone marrow transplants, he pointed out.

During this meeting, a $1,000 check was presented to Pregnancy Resource Center by Alcoa Kiwanis. CEO Valerie Millsapps was there to accept it.