“It's the best of healthcare from a futuristic, entrepreneurial and academic point of view.”
That’s how USF Health CEO Dr. Stephen Klasko describes an agreement between his organization and Florida Hospital—an arrangement that puts university medical research into practice in Florida Hospital locations around the Bay area.
The partnership, which was formally announced Monday, will see Florida Hospital invest about 14 million dollars to expand four specialty areas in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties.
Under the agreement, Florida Hospital’s healthcare providers will translate USF’s medical research into patient care in cardiology at Florida Hospital Pepin Heart Institute (across from the USF Tampa campus), breast health at Florida Hospital Tampa, neuroscience at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills and surgical oncology, melanoma and breast cancer at Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs.
“It’s going to allow the community greater access, not only to additional hospitals,” said John Harding, President and CEO of Florida Hospital Tampa Bay Division, “it’s going to serve smaller rural hospitals by bringing USF Health together with world-class physicians and a world-class hospital that they would otherwise may not have been able to have on their own.”
And for USF Health’s part, Klasko says the pairing is just the latest in a series of moves designed to put the university at the center of Tampa Bay medical care.
“When I first got here, it was who owns Moffitt and who owns Tampa General and who owns Florida Hospital,” Klasko said, citing providers USF Health works closely with. “Now it’s literally, let’s be the academic medical center for the Tampa Bay area, let’s work with folks so that people from around the country say, ‘boy, if you want great healthcare, you’re going to go to Tampa Bay.’”
You can see the joint press release from USF Health and Florida Hospital here.
