Sarasota Memorial opens south Venice urgent care center near U.S. 41/Jacaranda Boulevard intersection

Hours 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

This is the new urgent care center. Image courtesy Sarasota Memorial Health Care System

On Oct. 2, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System opened its seventh urgent care center, offering people who live near the intersection of 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,” the health care system announced.

“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 Dr. Reuben Holland, medical director of the Sarasota Memorial’s Emergency Care and Urgent Care Centers, in the release. “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,” he noted in the release.

“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,” the release explains.

Located at 8431 Pointe Loop Drive, near the intersection of Jacaranda Boulevard and U.S. 41 in Venice, the new urgent care center is approximately 5 miles south of the Sarasota Memorial urgent care center on the Venice Bypass and about 5 miles north of a medical campus that Sarasota Memorial is planning in Wellen Park, the release adds.

The new medical facilities and the new hospital planned on Sumter Boulevard “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,” the release points out.

Like Sarasota Memorial’s six other urgent care centers, the south Venice location is open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and it is staffed by Sarasota Memorial’s “board-certified emergency and family medicine physicians,” the release continues. The team provides adults and children (those older than 3 months) “with high-quality care for a variety of non-emergent injuries and illnesses …” (Infants under the age of 3 months should be seen by their pediatricians for routine or urgent care, the release emphasizes.)

In addition to urgent care, the release says, the center provides flu shots and other vaccinations; 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 centers, as well as for others with referrals from their personal physicians, the release points out.

The new south Venice center accepts most insurance plans and provides discounts for self-paying patients, the release further notes. “No appointments are necessary. Most patients are seen within 30 minutes or less,” the release says. People may use the health system’s Save Your Spot app to help minimize wait times, it adds: https://smhurgentcare.com/.

The phone number for the new facility is 941-261-6800.