Starting next month, children fighting cancer in the Flathead will be able to stay home for most treatments.

Kalispell Regional Healthcare is working with a Billings doctor to create a pediatric hematology and oncology clinic that will allow Western Montana children to be treated in Kalispell rather than Spokane, Seattle or Denver.

Dr. Carrie Neuhardt, who has spent the last three years as a pediatric specialist in hematology and oncology in Billings, will move to the Flathead Valley in August to start up a new clinic.

“We’ll be opening the doors as soon as I get there,” she said Monday. “We’ll be housed with the adult oncology clinic at first.”

Neuhardt will practice within the Northwest Oncology & Hematology clinic at Kalispell Regional Healthcare.

She and the other Billings pediatric hematology and oncology specialist both are leaving there, Neuhardt said. They are the only two such specialists in Billings — Neuhardt at the St. Vincent’s Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorder Clinic and Dr. Courtney Lyle at the Billings Clinic.

“It’s a little more complex than we’ll just be closing our doors,” she said. “It’s my understanding there is already one doctor coming to town.”

Neuhardt described the Kalispell undertaking as a major move for health care in Montana.

“This is a very huge undertaking,” she said. “Montana and Wyoming are unique states that are served very minimally in those areas [of pediatric hematology and oncology]. It’s a big deal.”

Neuhardt said children’s cancer care is “a pretty individualized field. It requires a vast network of resources. We will hire a full staff trained specifically for children with cancer. We are looking to find the right people.”

The project is so new that Neuhardt isn’t quite sure when or if pediatric hematology and oncology will get its own building and equipment in Kalispell.

“I’ll know so much more in a month,” she said. “The idea itself is only about two months old.”

Spokane is the closest clinic to the Flathead dealing with children with cancer and Seattle is the closest place that provides a “comprehensive clinic.”

Reporter Ryan Murray may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at rmurray@dailyinterlake.com.