Moffitt CEO Tours Nearly Completed SouthShore Campus
Moffitt Cancer Center at SouthShore is on track to welcome its first patients in late January. In late October, leadership from the cancer center toured the facility to get updates on its progress and to see firsthand how the center will operate.
“It’s very impressive how far along this building has come in a short amount of time,” said Patrick Hwu, MD, president and CEO of Moffitt. “This will really bring our state-of-the-art cancer care closer to the communities we serve in the regions south of Tampa.”
The 75,000-square-foot facility at 2709 East College Avenue in Ruskin sits on 9 acres and will be home to 18 exam rooms and 10 bays strictly for blood draws. Its infusion center will have 22 chemotherapy and observation bays, four of which are private. Moffitt at SouthShore will also open with a full radiology suite offering MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, mammograms and PET scans.
Moffitt CEO Patrick Hwu, MD, speaks with Jazmin Calzada, director of Nursing and Ambulatory Clinic Operations outside the Moffitt at Southshore main entrance.
According to Jazmin Calzada, director of Nursing and Ambulatory Clinic Operations, the first patients will be treated at Moffitt at SouthShore on Jan. 27. Scheduling options for SouthShore appointments are now open through Moffitt’s regular scheduling line and portal.
Patients can conveniently schedule all their radiology imaging, labs, chemotherapy infusions, radiation therapy and clinic appointments with cancer experts at SouthShore.
“We are on track and on target to open as planned,” Calzada said, adding that recent storms did not impede production or cause any damage to the structure. “In early 2025 we will be able to reach more patients and ease the burden some patients may have in getting to our Magnolia campus in Tampa.”
The two-story building is divided into quadrants, with blood draw and imaging on the first floor and infusion bays and exam rooms on the second. The layout provides patients privacy and convenience at the same time.
“This really shows how the design incorporated our patients’ experience into the layout to make it easy to navigate,” Hwu said. “It also takes into account a workflow process that benefits our team members and then translates to enhanced care for our patients.”
Moffitt at SouthShore is an ambulatory campus, meaning it’s a satellite facility that offers nearly all the cancer care as Moffitt’s larger campuses.
Calzada said that about 90% of the services patients receive at Moffitt’s Magnolia Campus will be available at SouthShore and every cancer disease type will have treatment options available, including clinical trials. Inpatient services and surgeries, however, will still require a trip to Tampa.
“Moffitt at SouthShore is 30 miles south of the Magnolia Campus,” Calzada said. “So that’s 30 miles patients from this part of the county will not have to drive in order to get the cancer care they need.”
Moffitt leadership toured Moffitt at SouthShore on Oct. 28 and got a look at the ongoing construction, both inside and out.
