For our new Q&A feature with our CEO Ed Jimenez, we sat down and asked him about several things happening at UF Health right now. If you have a question for Jimenez, email taylt@shands.ufl.edu and we’ll consider it for an upcoming edition of News&Notes.
(From left) Mel Bledsoe, EMT-P, UF Health ShandsCair paramedic; Ed Jimenez, UF Health Shands CEO; Jim McElwain, UF head football coach; and Karen McElwain stopped for a photo during a recent tour of UF Health.
How do you feel about UF Health’s new brand campaign, No Two Alike?
It has naturalness to it. The fact is that no two patients are alike. We take care of patients with so many complex diseases, conditions and injuries here, and our staff is put to the test daily to produce great outcomes. It’s not a cookie-cutter approach — one size does not fit all. The new campaign also allows us to subtly show that patients come to us from many different places. We have a great commitment to taking care of patients in our community, but we also have a responsibility to serve patients who come to us from throughout the state, and now more than ever, the Southeast.
It’s flu season. Why is it so important to build on our successful vaccination efforts from last year?
Protecting patients is the No. 1 thing. Our patients are more vulnerable than we are. By definition they are here due to an illness, condition or injury. If we carry the influenza virus, we run the risk of transmitting it to our patients, which is not a good scenario. We also need to protect our co-workers. We’ve all been in public and someone sneezes or coughs near you and you think, “oh man, I’m going to get sick.” It’s no different in a work setting. Last year we had a 95 percent flu vaccination rate. I want to get us as close to 100 percent as possible.
You gave new UF football coach Jim McElwain a tour of UF Health. How did that go?
Almost all of the coaches on his staff came along. That was important for me because most of them are new to Gainesville. It’s good to create an awareness of what happens down the hill from them. The goal was to tell them what we do and why we’re different. Where coach McElwain and I found compatibility is in our approach to teamwork. At the hospital we try not to make it about a single physician or nurse or researcher. It’s about how the teams together produce great results. In our case it’s patient outcomes. Similarly, he’s trying to put the best team on the field with the ultimate goal of winning games. We both value people and believe that every single person should feel that they genuinely contribute to the cause.
U.S. News recently ranked us among the nation’s best in seven adult specialties, to go along with our seven ranked pediatric specialties. What does this mean?
It’s a pretty big deal. Along with pediatric specialties, we have 14 ranked. No other hospital in Florida can say that. It’s an external validation that our teams are producing spectacular results on a national level. With 14 specialties on the lists, we’re measuring up with some of the best and most well-known hospitals in the nation.
