Summer 2015

From the Chairman

Kevin Behrns, MD

The delivery of high-quality, state-of-the-art care requires outstanding facilities that house sophisticated equipment that is used by highly trained surgeons. At UF Health, we are committed to offering our patients the best care, which necessitates an outstanding physical plant. Recently, we have made two substantial commitments to upgrade our facilities that will provide outstanding care venues for our surgical patients.

First, in January, we broke ground on the UF Health Heart & Vascular Hospital and UF Health Neuromedicine Hospital. This new tower will have 216 private patient beds, 20 operating rooms, 120 intensive care unit beds and 78 clinic exam procedure rooms that permit multidisciplinary outpatient clinics. These onsite clinics will be the first clinics to be integrated with the hospital units at UF Health. This proximity of the clinic and inpatient beds should offer our patients ease of access and enhanced convenience. In addition, many of the operating rooms will be “hybrid” suites that will permit both open and/or endovascular surgery. The facility will be home to the department’s divisions of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery and vascular surgery and is scheduled to open in early 2018.

A second project that began in April 2015 is the addition of the UF Health Children’s Surgical Center to the existing UF Health Florida Surgical Center. A dedicated outpatient surgery center with four operating rooms and an environment designed to be children-centric will create an outstanding new facility that will provide convenient access for children and parents. The UF Health Children’s Surgical Center will continue to be staffed by fellowship-trained pediatric surgeons, as well as anesthesiologists and nurses. Construction should be completed in spring 2016.

The construction of these two facilities will further upgrade our already spectacular facilities, including the UF Health Shands Cancer Hospital, which opened in November 2009. These new patient care venues provide vibrant and leading-edge environments that are welcoming to the patients and energizing to the staff.

Please come by and see our new facilities in the not too distant future. We would be happy to provide you with a tour.

Kevin E. Behrns, M.D.