USF Health Announces In-Store Wellness Clinic

Linda Nelson, ARNP, MSN (left), nurse manager for clinical operations at the South Tampa Center for Advanced Healthcare, and Valerie Williams, BSN, MBA, assistant director of nursing/clinical systems, greet visitors at the Neighborhood Care Center reception.

TAMPA, Fla. (June 22, 2009) – Tampa-based Sweetbay Supermarket continues to strengthen its home-grown roots by deepening its partnership with USF and collaborating on the Florida-based chain’s first in-store wellness clinic. USF Health Neighborhood Care Center, scheduled to open July 16 with two ARNPs, will be featured inside the store at its newest location in New Tampa.

“We are proud to offer the New Tampa community an in-store neighborhood care center where they can have convenient access to high-quality medical services that fit their needs,” notes Mike Vail, president and COO of Sweetbay Supermarket. “This service helps make our shoppers’ lives more convenient and the comprehensive quality of care that USF Health provides is exactly what we want to offer the New Tampa community.”

The USF Health Neighborhood Care Center will offer a variety of services through an advanced registered nurse practicioner. From common illnesses to camp physicals and vaccines, patients can visit the Neighborhood Care Center, and then be referred into the network of more than 350 doctors in the USF Physicians Group for further treatment if needed.

Dr. Stephen Klasko, far right, announces the opening of the USF Health Neighborhood Care Center inside the new Sweetbay Supermarket in New Tampa.

“This effort continues our exciting partnership with Sweetbay Supermaket, allowing USF Health to directly impact the health of residents in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel,” said Stephen K. Klasko, CEO of USF Health and Dean of the College of Medicine. “We are excited to bring our commitment to advanced, high-quality healthcare to this growing area in our community.”

Sweetbay’s new store location is 6425 County Line Road, Tampa FL 33647. Store hours are 7 am to 11 pm. Sweetbay operates pharmacies at USF Health's Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare and the South Tampa Center for Advanced Healthcare.

About Sweetbay Supermarket
Sweetbay Supermarket provides a one-of-a-kind shopping experience, built from the ground up and developed from research in core markets to express the vibrant, exciting and diverse tastes, colors and aromas of food important to Floridians. Sweetbay offers outstanding value, quality and variety, routinely partnering with Florida growers, to bring shoppers the freshest food available in the state. Sweetbay Supermarket was launched in November 2004 in Largo and is headquartered in Tampa. Sweetbay has 103 stores in Florida.

About USF Health
USF Health is dedicated to creating a model of health care based on understanding the full spectrum of health. It includes the University of South Florida’s colleges of medicine, nursing, and public health; the schools of biomedical sciences as well as physical therapy & rehabilitation sciences; and the USF Physicians Group. With more than $360 million in research grants and contracts last year, USF is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of 39 community-engaged, four-year public universities designated by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

- Photos by Susanna Martinez Tarokh, USF Health Communications