NCH expanding cancer services in Southwest Florida

Author: Camila Pereira
Published: Updated:

NCH is expanding its cancer services and bringing world-class care to Southwest Florida.

NCH is on the road to becoming an advanced community healthcare system, announcing its expansion of cancer services.

They plan to renovate the cancer center with some help from Northwestern Medicine out of Chicago.

“It’s a game changer for Southwest Florida because right now, 40% of cancer patients leave Collier County to get treatment. We don’t think that’s OK. This collaboration with Northwestern, and the gift we receive, will allow many more people to stay right here and receive great care,” said Paul Hiltz, president and CEO of NCH.

It’s something local patients and their families call a necessity, and now a dream come true.

“If you get the most advanced care possible, your outcomes are better. Survivorship is better,” said Dr. Edward Grendys, director of Gyn Oncology. “It’ll involve recruitment of oncology nurses, oncology staff people so that the cancer journey will not be in the kind of regular hospital.”

It took a year to get here, but it was all with the hope of making this difficult time a whole lot easier for patients and families.

Dr. Howard Chrisman, president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, said, “The credit goes to really so many others to have spent the time to thoughtfully work together a collaboration, and what we call it, Northwestern Medicine is our patient first mission. So, if you put the patient in the middle of the conversation, like-minded organizations can usually come to a good decision. I think that’s what happened here.”

Doctor Grendys told us that currently, they are focusing this expansion on women’s cancer care with the goal of having a major expansion into other areas of cancer care in the future.

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