Personalized women’s health facility now accepting members

Women in the Tampa Bay region who seek a more personalized, navigated style of health care now have a new option, as USF Health opens the Pamela Muma Women’s Health Center.

Located at the USF Health South Tampa Center for Advanced Healthcare, across from Tampa General Hospital, the 5,600 square-foot facility provides a relaxing environment for high-quality primary and preventive care exclusively for women.  The patient-centered practice with a low doctor-to-patient ratio offers priority access for urgent, acute and chronic health care needs, and tailors to the needs of each individual.

Pamela Muma worked with USF Health to make her vision for a center of excellence dedicated to personalized, navigated health care for women a reality.

The center features six spacious exam suites, as well as spaces for a doctor to review lab results and other medical information one-on-one with the patient. Members gain regular and after-hours access to a health care navigator and a physician, who will be able to arrange diagnostic testing and same-day lab testing results when possible, and can expedite filling of prescriptions and coordinate follow-up care with specialists.

At the Feb. 5 ribbon-cutting event for the new center are, from left: Pamela and Les Muma, USF System President Judy Genshaft, and Dr. Charles Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine.

The facility became possible through a $2 million gift from philanthropist Pamela Muma, who envisioned a better solution for women after experiencing her own personal challenges of navigating the health care system.

“This will be a godsend to women. It’s been a dream of mine, a passion, to build a center of excellence that will treat the primary health care needs of women of all ages in a relaxing and comforting setting. This center will provide annual physicals and other services in one facility, where our goal is to provide same-day results for diagnostics and imaging,” Muma said.

The center provides a comfortable, relaxing setting with many amenities.

Pam and Les Muma are USF’s largest benefactors, helping to advance the university’s mission through generous gifts of more than $56 million to benefit numerous programs in academics, athletics and health.

“This new women’s center complements the broad range of care offered by USF Health, providing even more options to access the benefits of our preeminent academic medical center,” said USF System President Judy Genshaft. “We are grateful for Pam Muma’s transformative gift and pioneering vision that made the center possible. It will make an impact on the lives of thousands of women throughout the Tampa Bay region.”

Dr. Denise Edwards, the center’s lead physician, in one of the facility’s six spacious exam suites.

USF Health is Tampa Bay’s only academic medical center, and serves as the region’s leader in advanced multispecialty care. The Muma center is the newest in a range of USF clinical programs improving the health and well-being of women — including a program attuned to physiological gender differences affecting the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of heart disease in women, and a maternal-fetal medicine team equipped to provide the best possible outcomes for high-risk pregnancies.

“Pam not only envisioned creating a center of excellence for personalized and navigated women’s health care in the Tampa Bay region, she persevered in working with USF Health to make it a reality,” said Dr. Charles J. Lockwood, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. “I am confident this innovative center will prove to be a model worthy of national emulation. We are extremely grateful to both Pam and Les for their significant investment to advance women’s health and for their steadfast support of USF Health and the Morsani College of Medicine.”

Members gain regular and after-hours access to a health care navigator and a physician, who will be able to arrange diagnostic testing and same-day lab testing results when possible and can coordinate follow-up care with specialists.

The center is now accepting membership applications, and will begin seeing patients Feb. 6.  They expect to serve a full capacity of 600 to 700 patients, about a third of a typical primary care office.

For more information, please visit the center’s website.

-Video by Ryan Noone and photos by Sandra C. Roa and Ryan Noone, University Communications and Marketing