Helpful Resources:
- Click here to sign up for our e-newsletter to be notified via email when COVID-19 Vaccines are available
- 10 Things You Need to Know About the COVID-19 Vaccine from our Chief Medical Officer & Infectious Disease Specialist, Dr. Emilio Dominguez
- COVID-19 resources from the CDC
Find a full transcript of the video message from our CEO below:
Hi, I’m Joe Delatorre, Chief Executive Officer, Florida Medical Clinic. I know many of you are happy to get 2020 behind you and moving on forward to 2021. I think we have a lot of things to look forward to. I know that many of you are interested in the vaccine. I think this is probably the number one issue that a lot of patients are calling about. So let me explain what’s going on.
The federal government has distributed the vaccine down to the states. The states are then in control of distributing the vaccine through their programs – I think they’re using the healthy shot program in the state of Florida. We have applied for all of the applications we need to get our dosages for our patients, and I know many patients are calling to find out when they’re going to be available. We will post on our website as soon as we have the vaccines available, keeping you up to date as quickly as possible. If you’d like to register for our newsletter and emails, go ahead and do that here and we’ll make sure that as soon as vaccines are available, you’ll receive an email to let you know you can schedule an appointment with one of our providers to get the injection.
Please remember, if you have the opportunity to get the shot, please go ahead and do so. There are many other providers – hospitals, health departments, etc. that are providing the shots. We encourage everybody to be immunized as soon as possible.
In addition, I’d like to take a minute to thank our staff. I’m deeply grateful for the tirelessly, hardworking staff that got us through the challenge of the pandemic last year. I’m most proud of the fact that we did not miss one day of being available to our patients through 2020. We quickly got telehealth online, which continues to be very popular with patients. Our staff has done an excellent job. I really, really thank them for all the hard work they put in during 2020.
Please don’t let your guard down, we’re so close to hopefully the next stage of this. But make sure you wear your mask, make sure you socially distance, make sure you’re washing your hands, and doing all the things the CDC recommends until we get this thing under control. As many of you know, the virus is actually quite intense at the moment.
I also want to make sure that you know that we are continuously looking to improve our locations and our services at Florida Medical Clinic. I have 3 projects that will open up this year. The first one is in Brandon, we have a major complex just south of the mall there. We’ve got a 16,000 square foot facility opening up right around the corner. It’ll be primary care, lab services, behavioral health and multi-specialty care, so we’re super excited. That location should open February 1st.
 The second project is on 46th street in North Tampa, and we’re consolidating some of our facilities into one, so we’ll have ophthalmology services there, OB service, endocrinology and nephrology there at that location, so we’re looking forward to that. That location should open in February as well.
The last major project is in Watergrass, that’s on Curley Road and Pasco Road. We’ve got about a 35,000 square foot facility which also will be multi-disciplinary services there. We’ll start construction here relatively soon, and it should be ready to be open the first quarter of 2022.
The other second major initiative that we’ve been working on at Florida Medical Clinic is constantly improving our network to help reduce fragmentation of services in the healthcare industry. Many of you know that as you access healthcare, not everybody communicates very well with each other. So what we’ve been working on is making sure that whether you have an experience at our primary care office, our specialty office, our ambulatory surgery center, or in a hospital situation or a post-acute, which is a skilled nursing facility, a rehab center, a long-term care facility, that a Florida Medical Clinic provider and a team of professionals work and communicate with you at all times. So we’ve developed an entire team of people along with redesigning our networks to make sure that you have continuity of care and that fragmentation is reduced. We want you to feel like all the parts are connected. I think that’s very important as we move forward in healthcare.
Again, our mission at Florida Medical Clinic is to be the best choice in healthcare in our community. I want to thank you for your trust in Florida Medical Clinic. Be healthy, be safe, thank you and have a good day.