Amberwell Atchison announces a 20,000-square-foot addition bringing new cancer care, expanded rehabilitation, and specialty services close to home
For more than 110 years, Amberwell Atchison has been the primary healthcare provider for Atchison and the surrounding region, serving as a local, nonprofit community hospital. We have made deliberate investments since 1914 to keep high-quality care close to home, understanding that a strong local hospital is not only a healthcare resource but an economic foundation that helps communities grow and thrive.
Our current facility has seen significant growth since it opened in 2010. Departments have outgrown their space, new services have come online, and patient volumes have continued to grow. In 2025, Amberwell worked with ACI Boland, the original architect of our current facility, to complete a master facilities plan that identified the ideal location for a new two-story addition, bringing approximately 20,000 square feet of new space to our existing footprint. This West Addition will expand our rehabilitation space, add specialty clinic space, create a more welcoming, centralized clinic check-in area, and provide a dedicated home for something our community has never had: Amberwell Cancer Care. Construction is
expected to begin in fall 2026 and Amberwell Cancer Care welcoming its first patients in early 2028.
Amberwell Cancer Care
Right now, if someone in our community is diagnosed with cancer, comprehensive treatment is not available locally. Each year, an estimated 200 to 300 people from Atchison County, home to roughly 16,200 residents, travel out of the area for infusion therapy—drives of an hour or more each way. That burden should not be part of the experience.
For several years, Mosaic Life Care has offered a limited infusion service in Atchison, and it has been a meaningful resource for local patients. We are grateful for it. But the space was not designed for healthcare delivery. Without dedicated pharmaceutical space for mixing chemotherapy medications, or the other infrastructure a full oncology program requires, providers have been limited in the care they can offer. Amberwell Cancer Care changes that. The new space will be fully equipped and purpose-built for oncology infusion care, working alongside patients’ existing oncology teams to bring comprehensive treatment close to home.
Patients will be able to begin their care at Amberwell, or they may work with providers at a regional cancer center for diagnosis and oncology oversight and then coordinate their chemotherapy treatments here in Atchison. The choice belongs to the patient.
Working with Mosaic Life Care
Amberwell Cancer Care is an Amberwell program. Amberwell Atchison will own the new facility and operate the program; Mosaic will supply the oncology physicians and clinical direction, drawing on its established cancer program and the relationships its providers have already built in Atchison. Chemotherapy is a highly specialized form of medicine, and in order to provide the highest level of care from the very start, Amberwell chose to work with an oncology team with deep experience running a well-coordinated infusion program.
Clinical oversight of Amberwell Cancer Care will be provided by Rony Abou-Jawde, MD (Dr. AJ), Medical Director of Oncology at Mosaic Life Care, and Vinay Gupta, MD, who currently provides onsite infusion care in Atchison. Dr. AJ has served this region for more than 20 years and is widely respected for his personalized, expert oncology care and his deep commitment to the communities he serves. Dr. Gupta has built strong relationships with Amberwell Atchison providers and has been a trusted presence for local patients. Mosaic’s commitment to keeping local care local makes this collaboration a natural fit.
Rehabilitation Services
Rehabilitation has long been one of the quiet engines of recovery in this community: physical therapy after an injury or surgery, occupational therapy that helps people relearn the tasks of daily life, and cardiac rehab that walks alongside patients recovering from heart attacks, bypass surgery, and heart failure. The team works with patients over weeks and months, watching them rebuild their strength and return to their lives.
The team is exceptional. The space has not kept pace. For years, rehabilitation has operated in a footprint that is undersized and difficult for patients to reach. The West Addition gives this work a modern, purpose-built home, including a dedicated physical therapy gym, space designed around the activities of daily living, and a monitored exercise area where cardiac rehab patients can safely rebuild strength and endurance after a heart event.
Room for More Specialty Care
The West Addition also creates room for more specialty care in Atchison. New clinic space will allow more specialists to see patients here at home, without displacing the programs that already use our existing space. The result is greater access to appointments that have too often meant a drive out of the county.
Shaped With the Community
As the rehabilitation space and the cancer care program take shape, we want to hear from the people who will use them. Community input will help guide how these services develop, and we invite you to share your thoughts as the project moves forward at amberwell.jotform.com/form/west-addition-input.
Building Hope
Amberwell is launching the “Building Hope” capital campaign to invite the community to be part of the project. The campaign, with a goal of $2 million, will support construction and equipment for the building addition and the launch of the cancer care program. Through a matching commitment, every community gift will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $1 million, so every $1 given becomes $2 toward the project.
Amberwell Atchison receives no local tax dollars. There is no hospital district and no mill levy designated to support it, so every gift to Building Hope is a choice, and that is what makes it powerful. Gifts to Amberwell Atchison stay in Atchison, supporting construction, equipment, and program launch on this campus, and every dollar given goes directly to the project. To learn more about the campaign and how to get involved, visit amberwellhealth.org/building-hope.
Looking Forward
This is more than a building project. It is a statement of what we believe: that the people of this community deserve exceptional, compassionate healthcare without having to leave home to find it. Amberwell Atchison has been part of this community for over a century, and we are honored to invest in the next chapter of that relationship.
