Q&A with the CEO – Ed Jimenez
Curious to know what’s on the mind of our UF Health Shands CEO?
We caught up with CEO Ed Jimenez and asked him several questions for this edition of News+Notes. See how to submit your question at the bottom of the page!

The flu vaccination deadline is Oct. 30: Why should employees get their flu shot?
We hold big wellness events, put on different wellness challenges and encourage employees to engage in healthy habits — and flu vaccination fits into healthy habits. It’s pretty straightforward: If you get the flu vaccine, you’re much less likely to get the flu. Getting vaccinated is also about workplace responsibility. Nobody wants to work next to somebody who is sick — it puts you at risk to get sick. And, you don’t want to infect patients, visitors or co-workers. Even if you don’t work directly with patients, you probably run into several patient care providers each day in public spaces — and you don’t want to risk getting them sick. Please get your flu vaccination. And if you’re sick, stay home!
Why is employee health such a priority at UF Health?
As an organization, we put an emphasis on wellness because we want our employees to watch their children grow up, enjoy time with their loved ones and sit back in a rocking chair someday and reflect on it all. Sometimes in health care, we’re surrounded by medical professionals who think they know better — my mom was a nurse and I can’t remember a time she went to a doctor unless she was on death’s doorstep. As employees at UF Health, we have access to great resources to help us identify health issues or improve upon issues we already know exist … but we have to take advantage of them. That’s why we have such great wellness resources.
What's next for UF Health over the next few years?
My vision for the next several years is to continue to ensure that we can state with facts that our outcomes are spectacular and that the talent, knowledge and expertise of our faculty and staff is second-to-none. Our desire must always be to produce these outcomes as a function of team, not as individuals. When you focus on these things, you can deliver great care and you get hungry to do more — hungry to get better, to start a new program, to expand something you’re already doing and, ultimately, to help more people. This becomes a wave of excitement. What got us where we are as a go-to hospital system is producing outcomes that others can’t and giving hope to people who had nowhere else to turn.
Want to submit a question?
Email taylt@shands.ufl.edu and we’ll consider it for an upcoming edition.