By Kyle LoJacono
Tim Misandree is a survivor.
Not from war or a natural disaster. The Wesley Chapel resident is a survivor of skin cancer.
Tim, 42, was diagnosed with the disease six years ago. He was told it was probably caused by living his whole life in the Florida sunshine.
“It was the most devastating thing I’ve ever heard,” Tim said. “My first thought is what am I going to tell my wife and two kids? My kids were only 5 and 6 at the time. I felt like I had let them down somehow.”
It was Tim’s wife, Karen, who worried about getting him the right treatment to fight the disease.
“We looked at all the places and after looking at everything we decided the best one for him was Florida Cancer Institute-New Hope,” Karen said.
Tim is now cancer free and attributes being alive today to the treatment he received at New Hope.
“It wasn’t just the treatment and all of that,” Tim said. “It was the way they treated me as a person. The compassion was as important.”
New Hope will now be able to offer that care with the help of Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS).
New Hope, which offers care through seven locations including three in Pasco County, will merge with FCS on Jan. 1.
“Florida Cancer Institute-New Hope brings longstanding experience and excellent patient care into our practice,” said FCS CEO Brad Prechtl. “We are delighted to welcome these outstanding physicians into the Florida Cancer Specialists family, and we are excited about increasing the number of clinical sites that provide radiation oncology, PET/CT scans and other cutting-edge treatments and diagnostics for our patients.”
Dr. William Harwin, president of FCS, said adding additional facilities to treat cancer patients throughout the state is a big focus for his group right now.
“Increasing patient service areas is one of the primary goals of Florida Cancer Specialists because it is at the very heart of our mission to provide world-class cancer treatment close to a patient’s home and family. As a result, our patients can access the best possible treatment with the least amount of disruption to their daily lives.”
New Hope president Dr. Jorge Ayub added, “The merger of our practices will provide an excellent synergy for our patients. Continuity of care will have no interruptions because our patients will be able to continue seeing their own physicians in the same locations they are familiar with. And by joining Florida Cancer Specialists, we will now be able to offer a more complete clinical research profile, fully integrated electronic medical records and increased access to the latest cutting-edge treatments.”
Along with the merged sites, Prechtl said the combining of doctors and other workers with FCS and New Hope will allow them to learn from each other’s experience to provide better overall care.
“FCS believes that we must provide the most advanced clinical treatments coupled with rigorous attention on patient-centered care,” Prechtl said. “Everything we do is designed to offer our patients the best opportunity for a positive outcome, as well as a better and less stressful overall patient experience.”
