My father was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic C...

My father was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer on 14Jan2020. I brought him to several places and decided on RCINJ since it was a highly rated cancer institute in NJ and we are located 15 minutes away. While the chemotherapy area and doctor's offices are conveniently in the same building so that patients can get their infusions and then go see their doctor's, the attention to detail and communication is lacking. I tried to schedule my dad several times to get his infusion done prior to his doctor's appt so that he doesn't have to spend any additional time there especially during the pandemic when I couldn't accompany him (he was weak and also did not speak much English). Although this is minor, I had some very major issues that would make a difference in my dad's treatment. He was found expressing 10% for PD-L1 and I requested we try to get market access for Keytruda, the oncologist's nurse did not move quick enough and he received approval when it was too late. I hate to have to put names out but in order to write review that could seriously help other families, I have to say that Joyce Plaza, although very nice and easy to talk to, was not the best at taking care of things in a timely manner when time is of the essence for cancer patients. I requested to see another physician in the middle of my father's treatment since the oncologist we were seeing was new and may not know his way around just yet (not his fault, but we just needed to be working with someone that could help us the best way possible). Joyce did not pick up her phone and we had all of our communications via email, she was involved in trying to allow me to see the other physician and she never got back or helped me make an appointment with her. My father needed hydration several times and we would discuss this with the oncologist and she would miss scheduling these. My dad fainted from dehydration and was in discomfort. Even a day makes a world's difference. You do not need state of the art facilities all the time because if your team is not able to have access to them or use them on you, it serves no purpose. In terms of the oncologist, Dr. Patrick Boland was very sweet and soft spoken, good bedside manners. In terms of aggressiveness and thinking outside of the box on his own, I had some difficulty with this. I would bring trials to his attention and ideas as well, he did not have any of his own to present. This did not work for us because my father's cancer was squamous cell carcinoma of the pancreas which is extremely rare without much research- he might have not been suitable for this particular time and this does not make him a bad physician, it just means that as patient's and the family of patient's, we need to speak up and find the right match. I did not want to know the prognosis for my dad because he was in the room but up until we knew it was basically time that we put him on hospice, Dr. Boland did not provide appropriate support and foster a conversation that would mean "we did everything we could, but honestly, let him live out his days with family because chemo or any other treatment will only make his time here more uncomfortable." Again, maybe a personality thing- very soft spoken, a little hesitant, did not work for me. I would not recommend RCINJ for rare and aggressive cancers, and I especially would steer away from having to have Joyce Plaza be the middle man- she is unavailable and when she is, she isn't detail oriented and thorough in her scheduling and follow up on patients. All cancer center's seem to have hoops you have to jump through to get to a Doctor so yes, this is the case at RCINJ as well, you have to call and leave a message and wait to get a response back. My father passed away on August 1st, 2020. It was almost inevitable, but I would've felt better having a team that was directing me more than I was directing them (I work in Pharma and tried to be as involved based on my own knowledge as possible but of course medical expertise always makes the world's difference). Good luck to you and I send you + energy.