These days, this section of Davenport and Four Corners is increasingly becoming known for something else: medical offices.
In an area already known for a major hospital, Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in Haines City, an increasing number of specialized practitioners have opened offices on U.S. 27, in plazas like the Swan Medical Complex, to meet the needs of an area still attracting plenty of newcomers.
“The area is growing with a lot of permanent residents, and less of the snowbird populations you used to see,” said Linda Vendl, Heart of Florida hospital’s marketing director.
Dr. Faiyaaz M. Jhaveri is a good example. He operates Urology Healthcare of Central Florida, with an office at 2217 N. Boulevard West in Davenport, in the Swan Medical Complex off U.S. 27. He’s been there for more than a decade, and has watched as the region continued to grow.
“I’ve been in practice in Davenport for 12 years,” he said. “Before that I did a fellowship at a Cleveland clinic in Ohio.”
What he’s found in Central Florida and Four Corners, Jhaveri said, is a booming region with a lot of young families, who often don’t have a primary care physician and turn to medical offices like his for their care.
And while Heart of Florida hospital does have an emergency room, he said, often times that’s not really where the patients need to go.
“These offices have been opening up in a lot of communities, so patients can come in and get screened,” he said. “Let’s say they come in with back pain, and they don’t know if it’s from kidney problems or from lifting things that were too heavy. I can treat them and figure out what the problem is. Or we can send them to an emergency room for people in need of more intensive treatment.”
Vendl said the growth of so many specialized care offices reflects something that consumers now want. Whereas a shopping plaza used to mean one store for groceries, another for clothing, and so on, now a complex like Swan Medical can offer several medical offices with different types of treatment available in each one.
“That’s kind of how people shop for medicine these days,” she said. “They shop for medicine in much more specialized ways.”
Heart of Florida is also reflective of this growth. In June, the hospital celebrated the grand opening of its new Center for Women’s Health. It was built on the new fifth floor of the hospital at 40100 U.S. 27, providing a 30,000 square foot addition that offers OB/GYN surgery, labor and deliver, and mother and baby care.
“We just opened the fifth floor of the hospital on June 25,” Vendl said. “It really is beautiful.”
Randy Wade, Heart of Florida’s director of materials management, said this section of Central Florida is perfectly suited for continued strong growth in the health care field.
The hospital operates a clinic in Poinciana, called Urgent Care Poinciana, and Wade noted that of the physicians working there, “Most of them are out of Davenport. It’s a great concentration, and I think it’s a great location. You’re in-between Tampa and Orlando.”
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