BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Sean Slovenski, who led the development and early rollout of the Walmart Health Center as senior vice president and president of Walmart U.S. health and wellness, has left the retailer. A replacement is expected be named within weeks.

“We will miss Sean, but we are excited to continue building and expanding on what he created at Walmart and to provide many more customers with affordable, accessible, essential health care options,” said Walmart U.S. president and chief executive officer John Furner in a memo to employees. Furner credited Slovenski and his team with having “successfully stood up the strategy we hired him to create.”

Slovenski’s departure comes shortly after Walmart announced plans to open additional sites this year in Georgia and the Chicago area as well as in the Jacksonville, Fla., market next year. The company currently operates three Health Centers in Georgia and one in Arkansas.

Slovenski joined Walmart two years ago from Healthways, one of the nation’s largest population health and wellness companies, where he was president of the population health division. He previously was CEO of Care Innovations, a joint venture between Intel and General Electric. He also served has vice president of innovation at Humana.

The Walmart Health Centers are a potentially revolutionary innovation in consumer health care, bringing together physician-staffed primary and urgent care, test laboratories, X-ray and diagnostics, counseling, dental treatment, optical and hearing services, all easily accessible within a Walmart Supercenter. The concept also includes offering specialized community health resources, in-center health and wellness workshops, and online education.

“The combined crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic recession and subsequent loss of health insurance for millions of Americans have reinforced the vulnerabilities of our health care system,” Slovenski said in a July blog post about the planned Florida entry. “At Walmart, we understand that this means our customers need us now, more than ever. We don’t take this responsibility lightly and are committed to helping our customers save money while living better — and healthier.”

He also noted that Florida is not only home to the second-highest number of Walmart stores in the U.S., but is the state where Walmart initially launched its $4 generic drug program over a decade ago. It is also one of the states where COVID-19 cases are multiplying most rapidly, with deaths presently approaching 9,000.

“Families in Florida will soon have access to this care when we expand Walmart Health into the state next year,” Slovenski said. “Walmart Health offers low, transparent pricing for key health care services, regardless of insurance status. This is especially important for communities that lack access to affordable health care, which we know is an unfortunate reality for so many right now.”

In a July interview with Business Insider, Slovenski said the Jacksonville openings will mark the end of the prototyping phase for the Walmart Health Center. “We’re full-bore ahead,” he said. “We’re not giving specific numbers yet, but it will be hard to be in the state of Florida and not notice us, wherever you are.”