PENSACOLA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In the battle to control AIDS in Northwest Florida, the office of Dr. Barbara Wade has been a reliable resource to the Pensacola community since 1987. As Escambia County continued to present the heaviest HIV/AIDS burden of the region’s four counties in 2013, the largest U.S. provider of HIV/AIDS care, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), teamed up with Dr. Wade to establish a full-service expert clinic and pharmacy.
Dr. Wade will bring three mid-level providers from her private practice to the new AHF Pensacola Healthcare Center, a new clinic opening this summer which will provide cutting-edge treatment and care five days a week and also include a state-of-the-art AHF Pharmacy. Full-service AHF Pharmacy locations can fill any prescription, and 96 cents of every dollar earned support HIV/AIDS clinics operated by AHF in 32 countries around the world serving over 300,000 people. Free, walk-in rapid HIV testing will also be offered through the new clinic, which is expected to open in July and will be located at 4300 Bayou Blvd. Extended hours in the mornings and evenings will also be available to meet the needs of the community outside of regular business hours.
“AHF has been proudly serving Pensacola with HIV/AIDS care since 1999 – as well as the Florida Panhandle as a whole through our Positive Healthcare Disease Management Program and mobile healthcare center – but setting up an established clinic with a trusted local expert like Dr. Wade will allow us to impact communities on a whole new level,” said Michael Kahane, Southern Region Bureau Chief for AHF. “We’re thrilled to be teaming up with an already-accomplished team with a proven track record of reliable care, and to offer the premier level of service our partnership will offer to an even wider spectrum of Floridians.”
“Caring for patients with HIV/AIDS these many years has been immensely rewarding,” said Dr. Barbara Wade. “I am happy to be teaming up with AHF to do even more and add the convenience of additional services in one location. We have been loosely partnered for more than 15 years and I am looking forward greater improvements and a future working together.”
Escambia County, where Pensacola is located, shoulders the heaviest HIV/AIDS burden in Northwest Florida, according to the Northwest Florida HIV/AIDS Consortium’s 2013 report on the epidemic in Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton Counties. After all surveillance data for that year had been calculated, Escambia accounted for 73% of reported adult AIDS cases and 68% of reported adult HIV cases, more than five times the numbers facing the second-most impacted county of Okaloosa. Those numbers do not include cases reported from within the state’s Department of Corrections.
Learn more about AHF Healthcare Centers at www.hivcare.org.
About AHF
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare provider in the USA. AHF currently provides medical care and/or services to over 300,000 individuals in 32 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @AIDSHealthcare
