TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — When Kaytlynn Rice was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in Tallahassee last year, she expected the next step would be getting it removed.
Instead, she says her search for treatment eventually took her from Tallahassee to Gainesville and then hundreds of miles north to Pennsylvania.
“They told my primary doctor, my cancer can wait a year,” Rice told FOX49. “And the word cancer and waiting a year should not be in the same sentence.”
Rice’s experience comes as newly released Leon County documents are putting a spotlight on cancer deaths and access to specialty care.
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare’s 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment found Leon County’s cancer mortality rate was higher than the statewide average, according to documents prepared for a county healthcare workshop next week.
The assessment also says approximately one in five Leon County survey respondents identified barriers to accessing chronic-pain management or specialists including oncologists, cardiologists, neurologists and endocrinologists.
For Tallahassee oncologist Dr. Pareshkumar Patel, those two findings are connected by a simple reality: cancer treatment only works if patients can reach it.
“Mortality goes up. That’s plain and simple,” Patel said. “Stage gets changed from early stage to curable stage to non-curable stage.”
A search for treatment leaves Florida
Rice was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer in August 2025 after developing difficulty swallowing and noticing a lump in her neck.
A biopsy confirmed the diagnosis, and her primary-care doctor began trying to connect her with specialists.
“So my doctor was trying to like fast track getting me to oncology and getting an ENT to take it out,” Rice said.
She first pursued surgery in Tallahassee. After being told the cancer could wait, Rice sought another opinion in Gainesville.
Her mother drove 14 hours to help. Rice said they traveled to Gainesville and completed pre-operative testing believing surgery would move forward, only to receive a call saying the procedure would not happen.
By October, Rice had moved back to Pennsylvania, where she had an established medical team from earlier in her life. Her thyroid was removed the following month.
“It had wrapped around my vocal cords,” Rice said. “It was invading my esophagus.”
Rice continues to undergo treatment and monitoring. She said cancer remains in her thyroid bed and additional surgery could be necessary depending on the results of her radioactive iodine treatment.
But Patel says delays in diagnosis and treatment can change outcomes for cancer patients generally.
“If your diagnosis to finishing to get the treatments, if you get delay and a delay or symptoms to the diagnosis to the delay of treatments, the mortality goes up,” Patel said.
When getting there becomes part of treatment
Patel, who has practiced oncology in Tallahassee since 2011, says some of the barriers he encounters have little to do with the medicine itself.
He pointed to a patient he saw Wednesday who lives about 45 minutes away and does not have a vehicle.
“Two to three appointments out of five appointments, he was going to miss it, and we had to reschedule it,” Patel said.
Cancer treatment can require repeated visits for medication, lab work and follow-up care. Missing those appointments, Patel said, can disrupt treatment schedules and even prevent some patients from participating in clinical trials.
Transportation is not the only obstacle.
Patel said insurance restrictions can sometimes force patients to travel outside Tallahassee for specialty care even when the type of provider they need practices locally.
He cited patients needing gastrointestinal evaluations who, depending on their insurance coverage, may have to travel to Panama City or Gainesville.
“We do have providers here, but it just throwing that kind of a barrier, it just makes it more difficult,” Patel said.
Rice described navigating her own care in similar terms.
“In the time it took to even get any care I needed, it was like pulling teeth,” she said.
She said arranging appointments and dealing with insurance became another responsibility layered on top of the diagnosis itself.
“I shouldn’t have to add on stress on top of the diagnosis I had and then calling insurance at the same time to make sure it’s approved or what I have to pay or what’s out of pocket,” Rice said.
Millions already spent on access
Leon County is already putting public money toward many of the access problems identified in the assessment.
The county spends $1.75 million annually through CareNet, which provides low-income uninsured and underinsured residents access to primary, dental, mental-health, pharmaceutical and specialty care.
County documents say CareNet’s healthcare partners provide more than 6,000 visits, approximately 2,600 prescriptions and 1,600 specialty-care referrals annually.
Through the We Care Network, volunteer physicians provide specialty medical and dental services to qualifying uninsured patients. In fiscal year 2026, the county says more than 1,600 Leon County residents were referred for specialty care, representing more than $5.5 million in donated services.
Yet access to affordable services and specialty clinicians remains among the challenges identified in the assessment.
“The focus is diagnosing early, definitely, but providing access to the care,” Patel said. “That is where we need to spend.”
FOX49 reached out to all seven Leon County commissioners Wednesday, asking why those barriers remain, whether the county’s investment is working and what needs to change.
Some commissioners said they were unavailable for an interview. Others did not respond.
Those questions are expected to receive more attention Tuesday, when commissioners hold a healthcare workshop with representatives from TMH, FSU Health and several local healthcare organizations.
The county says the meeting will examine priority health needs, existing programs and investments, and what healthcare providers are doing to address the gaps identified in TMH’s assessment.
Patel believes the medical tools to improve cancer outcomes already exist. The challenge, he says, is getting patients to them.
“We have technologies,” Patel said. “Trust me, we have great clinical trials for the lung cancer patients, colon cancer patients, if they are able to come to the places.”
For Rice, reaching the care she wanted ultimately meant leaving Florida.
“A lot of money and a lot of miles,” she said.
Her cancer treatment continues.