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Friday, March 29, 2024

UF Health and CareSpot partner to open new Gainesville location

<p>Pictured is the CareSpot Express Healthcare in Ayers Plaza at 720 SW Second Ave. UF Health and CareSpot opened a new location in Gainesville in the new Archer Centro West Complex on Monday.</p>

Pictured is the CareSpot Express Healthcare in Ayers Plaza at 720 SW Second Ave. UF Health and CareSpot opened a new location in Gainesville in the new Archer Centro West Complex on Monday.

UF Health will give students and Gainesville residents another health care option.

On Monday, UF Health and CareSpot Express Healthcare opened a third Gainesville urgent care location in the new Archer Centro West complex, located in the 3500 and 3600 blocks of Archer Road across from Butler Plaza.

The location was chosen because residents in the Southwest corner of Gainesville didn’t have adequate access to local urgent-care physicians, said Paul Dickison, vice president of marketing for CareSpot.

CareSpot’s goal is to give convenient health care to its patients every day of the week, and it is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., he said. CareSpot partnered with UF Health in February 2009.

"It’s all about coordinating care and trying to better serve the community," Dickison said.

It has two other locations in Gainesville, one in Ayers Medical Plaza 720 SW Second Ave., and another at 3925 NW 43rd St., he said.

Dickison said CareSpot had been looking into getting its new location for about a year.

The location is leased, and with the equipment and other costs the building will cost between $600,000 and $800,000, he said.

All three CareSpot facilities can accommodate about 60 patients a day, said Berna Vlacos, a medical assistant at the new Archer location. At the new CareSpot, about 15 patients have come in each day this week.

CareSpot expects to see more UF students from apartment complexes in the area, said Matthew Galatowitsch, a registrar at the new location.

UF communication sciences and disorders senior Annelise Gerardi has used CareSpot in the past.

She said she’s looking forward to the new location because she doesn’t have a primary-care physician.

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The 21-year-old said she lives near the Ayers Plaza CareSpot but would like to go to one that’s less crowded.

"Trying to get an appointment was probably one of the most difficult things," she said. "I think a new location is worth it."

Gerardi said she would go to the Student Health Care Center, but when she’s really sick she feels she gets better care at CareSpot.

Vlacos said the business wants to better serve the Gainesville community.

"That’s why they picked this location," she said. "The other two are on the other side of town, so this way we can cover all our bases."

UF history junior Jessica Kneeland said she’s glad there’s a new location closer to her apartment in Magnolia Manor, which is about a five-minute drive from CareSpot.

"It makes sense that they opened one on Archer," the 20-year-old said. "There’s nothing around there."

CareSpot will host a grand opening Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The first 175 people to tour the facility will receive a care kit with $200 in health care services.

Pictured is the CareSpot Express Healthcare in Ayers Plaza at 720 SW Second Ave. UF Health and CareSpot opened a new location in Gainesville in the new Archer Centro West Complex on Monday.

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