Highlights of Economic and Business Growth in the Tampa Bay Region (News Briefs)

Highlights of Economic and Business Growth in the Tampa Bay Region (News
Briefs)

TAMPA BAY, Fla., April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- News briefs concerning economic and
business growth in the Tampa Bay Region from the Tampa Bay Partnership:

Humana Cares Opens New National Service Center in Tampa Bay
Humana has expanded its local presence by opening a new 37,000-square-foot
national service center for its Humana Cares division in the Carillon area of
St. Petersburg. The center currently employs more than 275 associates, adding
about 100 associates locally since last fall, and has plans to expand its
on-site staff to more than 325 by the end of 2009. Positions to be hired
include registered nurses, dieticians, and other health care experts. The need
for health care workers and the overall medical industry has remained
resilient and is cited as one of the Best 150 Recession Proof Jobs/Industries.
Humana, the parent company of Humana Cares, represents Florida's largest
Medicare health-benefits company with more than 400,000 members statewide.
(Contact: Mitch Lubitz, 813-287-6180, mlubitz@humana.com)

PaperFree Tampa Bay Launches Electronic Prescription Effort
A new public/private partnership called PaperFree Tampa Bay launched a plan to
jump-start America's electronic health revolution to make health records
completely paper-free. PaperFree Tampa Bay, an initiative led by the
University of South Florida and Allscripts, will deploy more than 100
"electronic healthcare ambassadors" with a goal to convert 100 percent of
physicians in the Tampa Bay region from paper prescriptions, known to be the
cause of costly medical errors, to electronic prescribing. The effort is a
first step toward the implementation of Connected Electronic Health Records
(HER) to improve patient safely and reduce costs, and intends to leverage
funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (Contact: Susanna
Martinez Tarokh, 813-974-2776, smarin1@health.usf.edu)

Transamerica, InterSecurities New Headquarters in Tampa Bay
As part of the Aegon group of companies, Transamerica Financial Advisors and
InterSecurities, both full-service broker/dealer firms, have announced plans
to merge and create a new company to be headquartered in St. Petersburg.
Currently InterSecurities is headquartered in the Carillon business park in
St. Petersburg's Gateway business district. The resulting merger will retain
the Transamerica Financial Advisors entity and represents 1,800 registered
representatives and $15 billion in client account values. (Contact: Nicole
Lorey, 213-741-5809, nicole.lorey@transamerica.com

WellDyneRx Gets Tampa Bay Operations Rolling
Colorado-based pharmaceutical benefits management company, WellDyne, Inc.
recently moved into a 66,000-square-foot facility in Lakeland and has plans to
hire 100 employees during the course of the year. The new facility will use
an advanced robotic dispensing and distribution system capable of filling more
than 30 million prescriptions annually. WellDyne has plans to add 578 jobs to
its Lakeland operations by the end of 2010. (Contact: Susan Cain,
303-645-2613, scain@welldynerx.com)

Canadian GPS Company Moves Headquarters to Tampa Bay
GPS Industries, a 14-year-old Canadian company, has moved the company's
headquarters from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada to Sarasota. The firm
engineers and markets global positioning system and Wi-Fi networks and
products to golf courses and residential community developments. GPS
Industries employs 21 in Sarasota and plans to grow to at least 45 employees
in the next few years. (Contact: Kevin A. Carpenter, 941-894-8030,
kevin.carpenter@gpsindustries.com)

Progress Energy Florida, USF Work on Smart Grid
Progress Energy Florida and the University of South Florida's Power Center for
Utility Explorations have been selected by Florida's Energy and Climate
Commission to create the power grid of the future, known as the "Smart Grid."
The Smart Grid has the capability of helping customers manage their bills and
will allow the utility's grid to operate more efficiently, maintain
high-quality energy delivery and seamlessly integrate distributed energy
resources, including renewable energy generation and energy storage. Once
developed, the Smart Grid will be the first in Florida and one of the largest
in the nation delivering power to homes and businesses. Other project partners
include, the Governor's Energy Office, Publix Super Markets Inc. and HD
Supply. (Contact: Vickie Chachere, 813-974-6251, vchachere@admin.usf.edu)

Florida Ranked Fourth-Largest 'Cyberstate' for Technology Employment
Florida remains the fourth largest in technology employment according to the
Cyberstates 2009 report by the group TechAmerica. Florida employs 280,300
workers in the tech industry, representing a payroll of $19 billion in 2007,
the most current year for which state data is available. The state's computer
systems design and related services sector picked up 4,100 net jobs. Florida
was also ranked first in computer training employment with 1,600 jobs, third
in communications services employment with 84,900 jobs and third in
engineering services employment with 59,200 jobs. (Contact: Charlie
Greenwald, 703-284-5305, charlie.greenwald@techamerica.org)

St. Pete Times Forum Ranked No. 1 Venue in World
The St. Pete Times Forum ranked as the No. 1 venue in the world for gross
ticket sales in the first part of 2009, according to industry magazine Venues
Today. From mid January to mid February, the venue's total gross ticket sales
were over $6 million, which topped the No. 2 venue, Acer Arena in Sydney,
Australia, by almost $700,000. For the second year in a row, Venues Today
named the Times Forum the top-grossing arena in Florida. In 2008, the Forum
grossed nearly $32 million for 80 shows and more than 460,000 people.
(Contact: Elmer Straub, 813-301-6600, www.sptimesforum.com)

SOURCE Tampa Bay Partnership

Betty S. Carlin, Tampa Bay Partnership, +1-813-872-2811, bcarlin@tampabay.org