UF Health Shands Hospital

William A. Shands was a Florida state Senator, elected from the 32nd District in the mid-1940s. He was convinced that the best way to enhance the Gainesville community was to establish a teaching hospital at the University of Florida. There was general agreement that the state needed a teaching hospital, but located in a large city, such as Jacksonville, Miami or Tampa. His dedicated efforts were critical to obtaining state funding for a teaching hospital in Gainesville. The University of Florida Colleges of Medicine and Nursing opened in 1956. Two years later, the UF Teaching Hospital was started, on October 20, 1958. In 1965, it was renamed W. A. Shands Teaching Hospital and Clinics in honor of the man who did so much to make the facility a reality. The institution later became Shands Hospital, part of the Shands HealthCare network.[2]

As part of the University of Florida Health Science Center, the hospital is a 996-bed tertiary care facility with 241 intensive care beds.[3] Shands is a Level I trauma center and a leading organ-transplant center.

Health Science Center at the University of Florida

The J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center — is named for the former University of Florida president—has expanded since 1956 into the most comprehensive academic health center in the Southeast. The "center" now encompasses six colleges, a statewide network of affiliated hospitals and clinics including Shands Hospital at UF as the flagship teaching hospital and the neighboring Veterans Affairs Medical Center of Gainesville. The UF Health Science Center comprises the following Colleges: Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine. The University of Florida is one of only a handful of universities to have all these health-related professional schools—including veterinary medicine—and to house most of them under one roof. Shands is as a structure connected to the Stetson Medical Sciences Building and the Academic Research Building—both research lab buildings—the Dental Tower, and buildings housing Nursing and Pharmacy. In addition, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center is connected via an underground passage to the ground floor of Shands. Other institutions include the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida, one of the world's largest research institutions devoted to the challenges resulting from brain and nervous system disorders.

In 2004, Shands at the University of Florida once again joined the prestigious ranks of America's top medical institutions in the 15th annual U.S. News & World Report guide to "America's Top Hospitals." Included among the nation's 50 top academic medical centers, Shands at UF is recognized in 12 clinical specialty areas in 2012's comprehensive report for excellence. Specialty Ranks: Urology (20), Pulmonology (31), Neurology & Neurosurgery (32), Cancer (36), Nephrology (37), Gastroenterology (41), Cardiology & Heart Surgery (47). The following specialties were also recognized as being "High-Performing": Diabetes & Endocrinology, Geriatrics, Orthopedics, Gynecology, and Ear, Nose & Throat.[4] The Shands Transplant Center at the University of Florida is also ranked 19th in the nation.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute

In January 2008 the University of Florida, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, and Shands formed a partnership to develop world-class programs in cancer care, research and prevention. The partnership, will extend Moffitt’s innovative model of comprehensive patient care to UF and Shands cancer programs.[5]

Announcing the opening of the new University of Florida Cancer Hospital, for Shands at the University of Florida, located on Archer Road adjacent to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. The facility was estimated to cost $388 million, and is 500,000 square feet (46,000 m²).[6] In 2017, Shands opened a new specialty hospital on the medical campus: the Heart & Vascular and Neuromedicine hospital. The joint construction of this facility cost roughly $450 million and includes operating rooms, cardiac catheterization labs, two intraoperative MRI suites, as well as inpatient heart and neuromedicine intensive care units and floor beds. In July 2019, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at UF Health opened a $9 million clinical care and research building, which will feature experts specializing in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, Lewy body dementia, dystonia, ALS and concussions.[7]

In 2020, the hospital was named as the second best hospital in Florida, and was ranked in 7 adult specialties and 5 pediatric specialties by the U.S. News & World Report.[8]

The Shands Children's Hospital (right) and Cancer Hospital (right)

The UF Shands Children's Hospital is a pediatric acute care hospital. The hospital has 208 beds[9] and is affiliated with the UF College of Medicine, and is a member of University of Florida Health Network. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to pediatric patients aged 0–21[10] throughout Florida.

• University of Florida
• University of Florida College of Medicine
• J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center
• UF Health Jacksonville
• McKnight Brain Institute
• University of Florida Cancer Hospital
• Buildings at the University of Florida
• University of Florida Health

• Shands HealthCare
• Official press release of UF/Shands/Moffitt Partnership
• Info about the Cancer Center
• Virtual Tour
• Medicalnews.com article about Shands at UF