By Bonnie Mason | September 14
Roger Briggs, the chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Sun Laboratory Services, Inc. (which has a location in Wesley Chapel), stands by his mission to “deliver a level of patient service other laboratories are either unwilling or unable to provide.”
Briggs says that both Sun Labs’ new diagnostic center, located across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), as well as the original location in Sun City Center, offer convenience and customer-centered care that other labs often don’t.
The main laboratory opened in Sun City in 2005 and grew from about 1,000 square feet to a 15,000-sq.-ft. facility.
“We went from serving a few local clients to more than 300, in addition to the individual patients who use our two diagnostic centers daily for their prescribed lab tests,” says Briggs.
Sun Laboratory Services is a full-service clinical laboratory that partners with businesses and organizations to provide onsite phlebotomy services (phlebotomy is the act of drawing or removing blood in order to obtain a sample for analysis and diagnosis) and lab results. Sun Laboratory-trained technicians visit hundreds of assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, as well as home-bound patients, to provide the care and expertise expected by physicians and patient families in 13 counties on the west coast of Florida.
Briggs and his high school friend Kirk Coyle came up with the idea to open a lab service several years before Briggs was able to secure enough funding to launch the business. Briggs graduated from St. Bonaventure University in St. Bonaventure, NY, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He moved to Tampa in 1992, where his mother had relocated a few years earlier, and says he spent many years in sales management and (in the late 1990s) as a real estate investor, before the investor boom in the new millennium.
Coyle, Sun Labs’ co-founder and chief operating officer (COO), has knowledge and experience in science, chemistry and engineering. That, combined with Briggs’ business expertise and entrepreneurial spirit, made for a great foundation for the two to launch their business.
Briggs says, “The best part of what I do is the building of the business…seeing the business grow so that we can provide more patients and clients with our much-needed services.”
Briggs also says he is a strong advocate for small business and he definitely seems to take that core value to heart. He says, “When I need to purchase a product or service in my personal life, I do my best to buy from local community businesses. Some people don’t realize that the local hardware store is generally owned by a small business person and not some big corporation. And, many people also don’t realize that nearly 70 percent of working individuals in the U.S. are employed by small businesses.”
Briggs resides in Wesley Chapel with his wife Renee and their twin eight-year- old sons, Ryan and Jacob. He says he saw a community need for laboratory services that were convenient to residents in our area. So, in June 2013, Sun Laboratory Services opened its second diagnostic center location, just across from the new FHWC, where the highest quality services are provided, using the best diagnostic and laboratory equipment available.
“We are a community business,” Briggs says. “We offer quicker and better service and are able to be more efficient than the larger laboratories.”
Choose Your Lab!
Just as people choose their physicians, Sun Laboratory Services hopes that patients will be as wise when choosing their lab service provider. Briggs says it’s important for patients to realize that when they receive a prescription for lab services from their physician, they have a choice of where they can go to get their blood and other diagnostic tests. Sun Laboratory Services’ diagnostic centers are convenient to their patients and they accept most major insurance plans.
And, for those paying out of pocket, Sun Laboratory Services allows its patients to make their payments online.
“We care for the individual patient and understand that our precision and accuracy in testing is a key component to their well being,” says Briggs.
He remembers feeling a sense of pride and relief when several family members recently required testing for health issues and he was able to provide them with quality service, where he was confident that their testing would be done quickly and the results would be accurate. “It’s a good feeling to know that we’re helping people,” Briggs says. “We’re not just a product someone uses, but a top-notch service that really makes a difference to physicians and their patients.”
To schedule your next lab test with Sun Laboratory Services (2621 Windguard Cir., Suite 101), call 634-6120. Sun Laboratory Services also has a location at 721 Cortaro Dr. in Sun City Center/Ruskin.
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