One Year later, Patient Care Continues Expanding Through Moffitt at SouthShore
For more than a year, Moffitt Cancer Center has provided cancer care to a patient population south of its main Magnolia campus. Moffitt at SouthShore celebrated its first anniversary this January. The satellite clinic provides all of Moffitt’s services except for surgery.
The facility helps reach the community where Claribel Michel lives. Michel is a research coordinator for clinical trials at Moffitt at SouthShore. She is busy floating across clinics, screening patients, signing them up for potentially breakthrough treatments, documenting how they are progressing and following up with them even after their treatment is complete.
Behind the scenes, she and her fellow research coordinators are checking in with the patients’ care teams, reporting data back to the principal investigators and training on the next generation of clinical trials coming down the pipeline.
“I say that we’re like the octopus because we have so many hands. We’re just everywhere,” said Michel, who has been working at Moffitt since 2016. “I love the role, love what I do, love the patients and love the mission.”
Patients were front-of-mind in the design and location of the facility just off I-75. The address in Ruskin was based on extensive research into patient volumes. That research found that many patients were traveling from the south to receive Moffitt care. Now, the Moffitt at Southshore location easily serves areas like Sun City Center, Bradenton, Fort Myers and even Miami.
Within its 75,000 square feet of space, Moffitt at SouthShore boasts 18 clinical exam rooms alongside a full radiology suite with MRIs, CTs, ultrasounds, mammograms and PET scans.
Also available at SouthShore are diagnostic imaging, blood draw, cancer screenings, clinical labs, radiation therapy and infusion services. The list of services makes cancer care and treatment more convenient for a large population of patients, according to Moffitt at SouthShore medical director Vania Phuoc, MD.
“Moffitt at SouthShore has both advanced diagnostic technologies as well as treatment capabilities,” Phuoc said. “Patients are able to receive the latest in chemotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted therapies. They can get radiation treatments for all cancer types at this site with modern techniques.”
Clinical trials have also been a focus throughout the first year at Moffitt at SouthShore, and both Phuoc and Michel agree that the long list of services the Ruskin facility provides to patients are essential in saving more lives.
“I live out here in the Ruskin area. So it’s an exciting time because I’ve seen Moffitt grow in the time that I’ve been here,” she explained. “To know that I can bring that care and love that I have for the job that I do here, closer to home, and to see the patients nearby, that’s even more rewarding.”
