SMH Opens New Urgent Care Center in South Venice

October 3, 2023 – Venice

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System opened its seventh urgent care center today, offering people who live near U.S. 41 and Jacaranda Boulevard in south Venice and surrounding neighborhoods a more convenient, less costly place to seek care for minor emergencies and pressing health concerns. 

“Our urgent care centers fill an important gap by providing immediate care for conditions that can’t wait until the next day or until their next doctor’s appointment, but do not warrant a trip to an emergency room, said Reuben Holland, MD, medical director of the Sarasota Memorial’s Emergency Care and Urgent Care Centers. “We stitch up a lot of lacerations, set broken bones and care for many routine ailments, like the common cold, flu, sore throat, chest congestion, cough, ear and sinus infections and urinary infections.”

Sarasota Memorial’s new urgent care center replaces a Gulfcoast Medical Group family practice that closed abruptly in 2022 with the closure of ShorePoint Health-Venice. Located at 8431 Pointe Loop Drive near the intersection of Jacaranda and US 41 in Venice, the new urgent care center is roughly five miles south of the SMH urgent care center on the Venice Bypass and about five miles north of a medical campus SMH is planning in Wellen Park. The new medical facilities, along with the new hospital planned on Sumter Blvd., are part of a multi-year, multi-million-dollar expansion plan approved by the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board to fill the gaps caused by ShorePoint’s closure and address pressing health needs in the growing south county region.   

Like Sarasota Memorial’s six other urgent care centers, the south Venice location is open seven days a week, 8 am-8 pm, and staffed by Sarasota Memorial’s board-certified emergency and family medicine physicians. The team provides adults and children (over 3 months of age) with high-quality care for a variety of non-emergent injuries and illnesses (infants under 3 months should be seen by their pediatrician for routine or urgent care). In addition to urgent care, the center provides flu shots and other vaccinations and school and executive physicals and testing for COVID-19 (COVID vaccinations and childhood immunizations are not available at the center). All of Sarasota Memorial’s urgent care centers also offer walk-in laboratory and X-ray services for those receiving care at the center as well as others with referrals from a personal physician. 

The center accepts most insurance plans and provides discounts for self-pay patients. No appointments are necessary. Most patients are seen within 30 minutes or less. People may also use the health system’s Save Your Spot app to help minimize wait times (https://smhurgentcare.com/).