Publication: Flower Mound News-Connection, Flower Mound
After 27 years of having to travel to Lewisville for their full-service cancer care needs, Flower Mound residents now have a place to call their own.
Texas Oncology is the first tenant of the River Walk III Medical Park at 4370 Medical Arts Drive, adjacent to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound. The first patients were treated at its ground floor facility Sept. 24.
“We’re so excited to be here next to the hospital,” said Kathy Kreamer, practice administrator for Texas Oncology’s Carrollton, Flower Mound and Lewisville region. “It’s a long time coming.”
While Flower Mound residents could visit former Texas Oncology satellite offices elsewhere in town, they had to drive south of State Highway 121 near Vista Ridge Mall for full service. The latter facility was built in an area originally planned for a second hospital. Instead, Medical Center of Lewisville was remodeled and Texas Health Presbyterian-Flower Mound was built making it ideal for another full-service location.
“This is a growing area, a nice area,” said Kreamer, who began her Texas Oncology career 20 years ago as a chemotherapy nurse. “We have a lot of patients from Flower Mound so this brings us closer to them and on a hospital campus which we’re really excited about.”
Kreamer estimates about 30 percent of patients who visited the Lewisville location live in Flower Mound. The new location will help extend Texas Oncology’s emphasis on community-based cancer care which means a place that’s convenient for the patient, his or her family and support system.
The Flower Mound facility includes all the amenities of the older one and more. Besides 17 exam rooms, there’s a blood drawing room, infusion suite, private bedroom and patient education room.
“We conduct chemotherapy classes, keep literature and wigs and other information from the American Cancer Society in the patient education room,” Kreamer said.
There’s also a special area for clinical research.
“We conduct clinical studies and research right on-site,” Kreamer said.
By mid-November, the Flower Mound location will feature some newer and more advanced radiation machines. Among them is a linear accelerator that generates radiation targeting the cancer while saving surrounding tissue and keeping side effects at bay.
New to Flower Mound is the mobile PET/CT scanner and staff that will serve patients every Tuesday. It is one of only three in the Texas Oncology system.
Patients also will clearly see warm, inviting colors that have been painted on the walls of the long corridors.
“Some people spent the day here so we want to make this as comfortable as possible for them,” Kreamer said. “We offer televisions with wireless headsets, WiFi, warm blankets, juice and coffee. American Cancer Society volunteers always are bringing in snacks, candy and fruit.”
Texas Oncology has more than 300 physicians at 100 sites in Texas and Southeast Oklahoma and has developed 43 U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs. The Flower Mound office will feature six doctors – five medical oncologists and one radiation oncologist – and about 50 total employees when fully staffed.
There’s also an on-site retail pharmacy to serve Texas Oncology patients and those of any other tenants that become neighbors. In the meantime, patients can be sent to the adjoining hospital for X-rays, special bloodwork or in-patient admittance.
Kreamer said a grand opening likely will be held in January following full operation of the radiation department and after the holidays.
This story originally appeared in the Flower Mound News-Connection.