With its flagship hospital already ranked the best in Florida, University of Florida Health has earned two more distinctions: It is No. 12 on Forbes’ list of the state’s best places to work and No. 50 in the nation for female workers.
The business magazine and website publisher recently issued its rankings of the 100 best workplaces in each state and the District of Columbia as well as a national list of the top 300 organizations for female workers.
On the Florida list, UF Health ranked higher than some of the state’s largest and best-known workplaces as well as national and international companies with a substantial Florida presence. UF Health, the university’s academic health center, includes UF and UF Health Shands employees working in six health colleges, 10 hospitals, dozens of faculty practices and nine research centers and institutes. The UF Health umbrella extends from Gainesville to Jacksonville and includes two hospitals and other services that provide care to the residents of the Central Florida community of The Villages®.
“This validates what we have all known for a long time. Compassionate and high-quality patient care is at the heart of our mission,” said David R. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president for health affairs at UF and president of UF Health. “At the same time, we strive to make UF Health the same highly desirable destination for our workers. Indeed, the two are closely related. Our standing as a top workplace plays a significant role in our success as an academic health center.”
The Forbes rankings are the latest in a series of state and national recognitions for the university and UF Health. In July, U.S. News & World Report named UF Health Shands Hospital one of the nation’s elite. The publication placed nine UF Health adult medical specialties among the top 50 in the nation — more than any other hospital in Florida. UF Health Shands Childrens Hospital has three medical specialties in U.S. News & World Report’s national rankings. The pediatric cardiology, pulmonology and endocrinology specialties have been among the nation’s premier programs for at least a decade.
UF is also the nation’s No. 6 public university and has 44 graduate programs ranked in the top 20 among public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. The UF College of Pharmacy is ranked No. 5 in the country, the UF College of Veterinary Medicine is ranked No. 9, and the UF College of Medicine is No. 18 among public medical schools for medical research.
UF Health Shands CEO Ed Jimenez said the Forbes rankings as a top employer is especially satisfying because the results were driven by UF and UF Health Shands employees’ responses.
“I have the privilege of seeing our dedicated care teams and hospital staff in action every day,” he said. “Today, everyone continues to meet the challenges that are unprecedented in modern-day health care, even before the outbreak of COVID-19. Our achievements as a top workplace are very much a reflection of the many dedicated people in UF Health’s hospitals, outpatient practices, research laboratories and medical classrooms.”
The statewide Forbes list is based on surveys of more than 80,000 people who worked for companies with at least 500 employees. The surveys were conducted between October 2019 and May 2020. The Forbes list of best workplaces for women surveyed 75,000 people, including 45,000 women, at companies with more than 1,000 workers. They were queried in March and April.
UF Health Shands is constantly working on employee-focused initiatives to keep its workers happy and productive, said Janet Christie, senior vice president for human resources at UF Health Shands. Workers are able to cultivate career paths and gain expertise through programs such as tuition reimbursement.
“Many employees advance to different positions throughout the organization with additional education or by building different skills through training and education at the hospital,” Christie said.
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