What do you enjoy most about the Milestones Service Awards banquet to honor long-term employees?

The Milestones banquet allows us to thank our long-term employees who have committed large portions of their lives to serving patients and supporting co-workers. They are dedicated to UF Health Shands and are a part of what makes it so great. The banquet also provides us an opportunity to thank their families. When you factor in the waking hours we spend here along with the amount of time that work is on our brain, it really adds up. I like to let employees’ families know that we appreciate them sharing their loved ones with us. The Milestones banquet also reminds me that UF Health Shands is a family — all 9,500-plus of us are a part of something bigger and I’m so thankful to be included! These folks inspire me so much.
Turn to page 4 to read more about the Milestones Service Awards banquet.

What would you like staff to know about the UF Health Heart & Vascular and Neuromedicine hospitals opening in December?

The new hospitals will allow us to do something that very few places can do — bring almost all of the clinical care we have in those specialties into one building for our patients. For example, if a patient visits us for a problem with seizures and may require surgery and admission, they may go to nine different locations currently. In the new hospital? Everything they need is in one building. That’s remarkable and will make a huge difference for our patients and their families. Additionally, our faculty, residents and staff are eager to be located together in a building designed for their needs.

How will the new hospitals benefit other faculty and staff who aren’t working in them?

By having faculty and staff move into the new hospitals, we will have available space for some areas to move, and for some areas to grow. We’re working on this “backfill” plan for vacated space at UF Health Shands Hospital. It creates elbowroom to allow us to do renovations and expansions. In the coming months, we’ll have a better idea of who’s moving and who’s growing. We committed years ago to providing facilities that match the talent of our faculty and staff and this presents another opportunity to do that.