How It All Began
Originally from Pensacola, Florida, Davian Santana joined the United States Navy after graduating high school. His academic excellence at the Naval School of Health Sciences enabled Santana to become an advanced medical laboratory technician and, later, a medical technologist. After being honorably discharged from the Navy, Santana worked at an Alabama hospital for a few years, before relocating to Florida. There he worked for Beckman Coulter, installing and validating medical equipment. In doing his job, Santana got to see the internal operations of many laboratory facilities across the state. That’s when he began to notice an ongoing lack of personalized care, compounded by high prices and long wait times (both for the patient’s on-site wait time and for their results to be delivered).
Davian Santana
Founder & President
Navy Veteran
We sought to bring humanity back to an industry that has become a commodity.
– Davian Santana – Founder & President
Putting The Patient First
“The patient was not being put first. Likewise, neither were the physicians or the facilities who depended on those labs to deliver timely and accurate results,” Santana says. “Everywhere I looked, it was another upside-down paradigm—another case of ‘the tail wagging the dog.’ ” Santana had seen firsthand that, although many clinical laboratories talked about patient-focused care, most labs did not deliver with the hard work and dedication it took to create such an experience. “I began to think to myself,” Santana says, “’I’m bringing to life all these labs for other companies – why not bring to life a lab of my own?’” Santana began to envision an opportunity in the existing market—for a focus truly based on service, value, and timely accuracy.Working around the clock, Santana continued working as clinical systems engineer by day before putting in another shift every night at what would later become Vista. Leveraging his home, assets, and time to bring his vision to life, Santana put everything he had into building his laboratory by hand. Santana realized his vision when Vista Clinical Diagnostics was incorporated in July 2003 and opened its doors for business in January 2004.
Headquartered in Clermont, Florida, Vista Clinical is currently contracted with hundreds of skilled nursing homes and services many assisted living facilities, physician offices, clinics, urgent cares, companies and organizations throughout the eastern United States. Clinical specimens are tested at the state-of-the-art, 35,000 square foot facility in Clermont, as well as at laboratories in Lake City, FL and Danville, VA. The current clinical laboratory services offered include pathology, chemistry, coagulation, immunochemistry, hematology, microbiology, molecular testing, serology, urinalysis, and more. Vista also has a Microbiology Department with a full test menu and excellent turnaround time on all testing. The company is proudly CAP Accredited. Based on the ethics of higher quality healthcare, at an affordable price, with excellent service, Davian Santana has grown his vision from a small, local, laboratory in Minneola, Florida to the outstanding corporation it is today.
Same Day In-House Results
When Vista began offering same-day results in 2004, physician after physician would express their disbelief – “You can’t give me results that fast. It’s impossible!” – to which Vista simply said we would: And we did. Not stopping with improved efficiency, Vista then began charging self-pay patients at competitively low rates. Countering those who might have thought Vista’s low rates were just a market-penetration tactic for the short term, that pricing structure has remained in place for the long term. Yet, none of these accomplishments would have been possible had Vista not been founded on the principle of caring, first and foremost, for the patient.
At Vista, we pride ourselves on three principles which set us apart from other companies in the Healthcare Industry. We began our company to make a difference, and we continue to uphold these standards each and every day.
Key Differentiators
Offering some Zen-like insight into their tremendous growth, Santana simply says: “What’s good for our patient is what works for us.” In other words, Vista has grown by choosing to provide better service. “Whenever a patient or client wants better service, they choose Vista,” says the Vice President of Operations. “Our success story is told through the lives we’ve touched and the beliefs that have changed in our patients, who now think: Not only is Vista the better choice, Vista is really trying to make a difference with their quality of care. Our retention rate is extremely high, and we earn that honor every day.”