Company Profile
UF Health Shands
Company Overview
UF Health encompasses the University of Florida Health Science Center – the Southeast’s most comprehensive academic health center – and the Shands family of hospitals and services.
With campuses in Gainesville and Jacksonville, UF Health includes six health colleges, six research institutes, two teaching hospitals, two specialty hospitals and a host of physician medical practices and outpatient services throughout north central and northeast Florida. Our mission is to promote health through outstanding and high-quality patient care; innovative and rigorous education in the health professions and biomedical sciences; and high-impact research across the spectrum of basic, translational and clinical investigation.
UF Health includes the colleges of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health and Health Professions and Veterinary Medicine, which includes both a large animal hospital and a small animal hospital. The system also encompasses six research institutes: the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the McKnight Brain Institute, the Genetics Institute, the UF Health Cancer Center, the Institute on Aging and the Emerging Pathogens Institute.
The full spectrum of patient-care services is provided through Shands, which is UF’s private, not-for-profit affiliate. The Shands family of hospitals and programs includes two teaching hospitals as well as two specialty hospitals:
UF Health Shands Hospital
UF Health Shands Cancer Hospital
UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital
UF Health Jacksonville
UF Health Shands Psychiatric Hospital
UF Health includes two specialty inpatient facilities — UF Health Shands Rehab Hospital and UF Health Florida Recovery Center — as well as a home-health agency — UF Health Shands HomeCare.
UF Health, the umbrella name under which UF and Shands work in close collaboration, also offers more than 80 UF physician outpatient practices located throughout north central and northeast Florida.
Company History
William Augustine Shands
Florida Senator William Augustine Shands was born on July 21, 1889. His family moved to Gainesville in 1901. Shands and his brothers attended the University of Florida in the early 1900s when Gainesville was just sand roads and a few buildings.
As a member of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity, he played baseball and football for the university during a time when barely 200 people attended football games.
He left school without graduating, which is something he regretted, and went into the fertilizer business in Gainesville. After marrying Kathryn Hawkins in 1912 and moving to Alabama, he soon faced the tribulations of the Great Depression. Doing anything he could to make ends meet, Shands eventually returned to Gainesville, where in 1928 he created the Gainesville Poster-Advertising Company. This became his stepping-stone into Gainesville politics.
As a prominent member of the business community, Shands ran for City Council. He joined the Committee Charter Commission and was appointed a member of the Road Board in 1929. These experiences led him to return to school to study law to help further his business and political aspirations.
After being elected a Florida Senator, he dedicated his efforts to enhancing the Gainesville community by building a teaching hospital. Though initially he needed convincing that such a hospital in a small university community would be more beneficial than one in a metropolitan area, he began to diligently rally support for a teaching hospital in Gainesville rather than in cities like Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville.
Shands described UF as the center of Gainesville and believed that UF's success stemmed from the unified support it received from being located in a small community. The UF colleges of Medicine and Nursing opened in 1956. The UF Teaching Hospital opened its doors on October 20, 1958. In 1965 it was renamed in Shands' honor as W. A. Shands Teaching Hospital and Clinics.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
UF Health Shands is an academic medical center and is the leading referral center in the state of Florida. Located in beautiful Gainesville, UF Health Shands is a Magnet-designated Level-1 Trauma Center with approximately 852 beds and is ranked annually as a US World News & News Report "Best Hospital" in several specialties. More than 550 UF faculty physicians work alongside highly skilled nurses and hospital staff to provide specialized, complex medical care in more than 100 specialty areas. We're the largest private employer in the North Central Florida communities in which we operate, with over 12,000 of the brightest minds in healthcare on our team.
Benefits
Medical Insurance (EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON DATE OF HIRE)
Prescription Program
Short-Term Disability
Long-Term Disability Insurance
Employee Life and AD&D Insurance (effective the first day of the month after employment)
Retirement Plan
Paid Time Off (accrues bi-weekly based on hours worked and years of service)
Employee Assistance Plan
Tuition Reimbursement (available after six months of employment)