HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — A nationally recognized in vitro fertilization lab for USF Health is closing and the services are being transferred to another facility.
ABC Action News has reached out to USF Health after anonymous viewers asked about the closing as they say they were given virtually no notice.
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In a press release, USF Health said they are transitioning and affiliating with a new facility, Shady Grove Fertility, that has offices across the country.
“I am very pleased that this affiliation will enhance our core missions of teaching, research and clinical care, as the only academic medical center in the Tampa Bay region,” said Mark Moseley, Chief Clinical Officer for USF Health. “Due to this joint effort, we are able to continue to provide the highest quality care and help make life better for our IVF patients and their families.”
USF Health tells ABC Action News that they are closing the lab in the next couple of months so they can safely transition specimens and embryos.
The release states that starting Thursday, they will begin accepting new patients and will start reaching out to current patients to let them know about the affiliation.
USF Health said they are doing this because they want to expand services, and to do that they need a partner.
We also found that USF Health's former IVF Medical Director Shayne Plosker is now at Shady Grove Fertility. Plosker is a board certified reproductive endocrinologist, an IVF specialist with SGF and former professor and Division Director of USF-IVF and Reproductive Endocrinology.
“As a former USF Health physician, I’m particularly honored to extend this unique affiliation. I believe it will offer patients a great advantage on their road to parenthood, as well as enhance the training opportunities of medical students and resident physicians at USF,” said Shayne Plosker, MD.
The press release went on to say:
"SGF Tampa’s new Wesley Chapel location joins its existing two locations in Tampa—Westshore and Brandon. The SGF Tampa practice was formed in 2018, and provides convenient access to highly specialized fertility care, including diagnostic testing and low- and high-tech treatment options, such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), in vitro fertilization (IVF), donor egg treatment, egg freezing, oncofertility and LGBTQ family building."
ABC Action News also learned that 14 employees are impacted with the closure, and six of them have found new positions within the organization.
USF Health said they are working to find jobs for the others.
