Passport Health celebrates 20 years as the travel medicine industry leader

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- This year, Passport Health, the largest and leading provider of travel medicine and immunization services in North America, celebrates its 20 year anniversary.  The company was founded in 1994 by Fran Lessans, a Registered Nurse and Passport Health's current President and CEO.  In the early 1990s, Lessans noticed a gaping hole in the medical field: pre-travel medical services, including vaccinations and medications for travel, specialty travel supplies, destination specific advice, and health counseling tailored to travelers were not readily available or were incomplete and fragmented. This gap in available care was having a deleterious effect on public health: far too many travelers were returning from their time abroad seriously ill.  Lessans was motivated to head off this potential health crisis, so she crafted an educational and clinical solution to provide a full suite of travel medicine services in a single stop.  In 1994, Passport Health opened its first office in Baltimore, Maryland.

Passport Health experienced immediate success. Travelers received convenient, complete, and professional pre-travel medical care from clinical experts in travel medicine, immunology, and vaccines.  Passport Health was, and continues to be, a one-stop shop for travel medicine: a place to get counseling, immunizations, specialty travel supplies, medications, evacuation insurance, and destination-specific advice.  The clinics provided specialty and hard-to-find shots vaccines that were unavailable elsewhere.  The travel consultations included an itinerary-specific review that covered everything from food safety, to mosquito-borne disease prevention, to useful information about the traveler's destination, such as tips on how to fit in with the local culture and laws, the country's weather, and U.S. Embassy locations.  Passport Health's unique offering filled a hole in the medical industry, and the business has grown to provide a dearly needed service to millions of travelers across the United States.

"Indeed, I wanted to improve the experiences of all travelers, beyond those I could counsel myself," said Lessans, and, "In order to offer this dearly needed service to all travelers, it became clear that it was necessary to replicate the Passport Health model across the country."  Lessans worked to rapidly grow the business, and, by the year 2000, there were 34 Passport Health locations in 15 US states.  In 2014, there are now over 230 clinic locations in 43 US States and Canada serving 95,000 individual travelers each month as well as over 1,200 corporate account clients.  In addition to travel medicine services, the business now offers onsite flu and other vaccination events, routine immunizations, specialty physical examinations, and vaccination records management services.

Innovation and client service have driven the Passport Health business from day one, and will continue to do so as the business expands its footprint even more.  Summarizing the company's commitment to patient care and leading the medical industry, Lessans observed, Passport Health's "steadfast support of concierge, client-focused care continues to drive us to find ways to streamline processes while keeping superior patient care at the forefront of all operations."

About Passport Health

Passport Health is the largest and leading provider of travel medicine and vaccination services in the North America.  With over 230 clinic locations, 20+ years of experience, a commitment to first class medical care, and rigorously trained medical staff, Passport Health sets the immunization industry standard.  Passport Health's core services have grown from travel medicine to include on-site flu clinics, specialty physical exams, routine immunizations, and vaccination records management solutions for public and private sector clients of all sizes.

Media Contact
To learn more about Passport Health, please contact:
Carrie Getsinger
Passport Health Director of Client Services and Communications
(480) 646 9066
[email protected]

Video - http://youtu.be/501Mnpcl9BY

SOURCE Passport Health