ATLANTA — Gov. Nathan Deal joined hundreds of patients, caregivers, community members and public officials Sept. 18 to celebrate the grand opening of Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Newnan, south of Atlanta.

CTCA at Southeastern officially opened Aug. 15, about a year after CTCA broke ground on the 226,000-square-foot, fully digital hospital that focuses on complex and advanced-stage cancer. The facility joins CTCA regional destination hospitals in Chicago, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Tulsa, Okla., as a new option in comprehensive cancer care for patients and their families throughout the southeastern United States.

“When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, I wanted information, options and a treatment plan that considered all aspects of what was going on in my life,” said Audrey Allen, a breast cancer survivor from Richmond Hill who addressed the crowd during the event. “Patients deserve more options. Having this level of care closer to home means so much to me and my family — and will to so many patients and caregivers in the Southeast.”

CTCA is the home of Patient Empowered Care, a care model that combines state-of-the-art clinical treatments and technology with an array of supportive therapies such as nutrition therapy, naturopathic medicine, pain management, oncology rehabilitation, mind-medicine and spiritual support.

Attendees at the celebration — themed “Care that never quits in the Southeast” — took tours of the hospital and interactive centers.

The hospital includes 25 private inpatient rooms, surgical suites, state-of-the-art radiation and infusion therapy departments, an outpatient clinic, rehabilitation and physical therapy, a dining room, chapel, onsite residential accommodations for outpatients and their families and more. The new hospital is expected generate 500 new jobs.