Community Benefit
Destination UF Health

UF Health proactively reaches out beyond the walls of our hospitals and clinical practices to share valuable health information with area residents. We offer health education programs and events and also partner in community efforts. We support civic, social and cultural programs to raise awareness of health issues and promote wellness. We bring UF Health physicians, dentists, nurses and other providers and experts into the community to speak about specific health and wellness topics at seminars, and to offer disease prevention information and screenings at community health fairs and other outreach events.

Our commitment as a responsible, accountable steward of our resources is the cornerstone of UF Health’s not-for-profit mission. In fiscal year 2020, UF Health spent $164.8 million on unsponsored charity care (at cost) and social responsibility efforts across its Gainesville, Jacksonville and Central Florida campuses. Additionally, UF Health Shands and UF Health Central Florida reported a Medicaid shortfall totaling $68.5M as a result of caring for patients in our community who are most in need.

LEARNING

$41.7M

Health professionals education

GROWING

$17.1M

Scientific and clinical research

HEALING

$4.9M

Community and regional health services

GIVING

$0.6M

Donations and in-kind services 

  • $297.6M in total community benefit (Fiscal Year 2020)

There are many ways we are making a positive difference in the lives of those we serve each and every day. UF Health offers a variety of health education and outreach initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life for everyone in the community:

All of Us Research Program

UF Health is part of an ambitious nationwide effort to accelerate health research and medical breakthroughs. This program will gather health information from at least 1 million people over the next decade to shape the future of health care and support precision medicine. We’re among more than 25 U.S. institutions involved and part of the Southeast Enrollment Center network. UF is part of the All of Us study, which aims to recruit 1 million participants over 10 years. The program’s goal aligns with UF Health’s commitment to move medicine forward. 

PulsePoint Smartphone App

UF Health officials partnered with Alachua County and city of Gainesville emergency first responders to make the PulsePoint smartphone app available across Alachua County. PulsePoint, funded by the UF College of Medicine’s department of anesthesiology, alerts participating citizens on their smartphones when a person experiences a cardiac arrest nearby, allowing them to help by delivering hands-only chest compressions until emergency personnel arrive. Use of the app is expected to help double the county’s survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests thanks to lifesaving bystander CPR.

Equal Access Clinic Network

The Equal Access Clinic Network, established by the UF College of Medicine and staffed by faculty and student volunteers from several of our health-related colleges, offers free care and other services for the medically underserved in Gainesville, including primary care, physical therapy, occupational therapy and dental care.

UF College of Medicine Mobile Outreach Clinic

The UF College of Medicine Mobile Outreach Clinic delivers care to the medically underserved in low-income neighborhoods and rural areas in and around Alachua County. A large bus containing two exam rooms, a laboratory and a waiting area is staffed by a registered nurse and volunteer physicians, physician assistants, residents and medical students who screen, refer and provide case management five days a week throughout the community. 

Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program

This program provides education and training to veterinary professionals, students and animal shelters to enhance the medical and behavioral health of shelter animals, to increase shelter lifesaving and to promote public health.

Urban Health Alliance

The UF Health Urban Health Alliance is a comprehensive resource and community health innovation hub that brings together organizations and individuals to help improve the health of Jacksonville residents using community-initiated, self-sustainable strategies and solutions. Its mission is to improve the health of residents through a multifaceted, evidence-based approach to the health and well-being of people, particularly the most vulnerable. It also works toward eliminating disparities that stand in the way of achieving health equity. The Urban Health Alliance has initiated numerous programs throughout Jacksonville to support their goals and the community.

Northeast Florida Healthy Start/Little Miracles 

The Healthy Start initiative was created in 1991 to reduce Florida’s high infant mortality rate. State law mandates that community-based Healthy Start coalitions oversee the maternal and infant health care services in their communities. Offered through the hospital’s obstetrics and gynecology practice and labor and delivery unit, services include prenatal education, childbirth and breastfeeding classes, parenting classes, counseling for drug and domestic abuse, and other services. UF Health Jacksonville’s Little Miracles Program began in 2000 to improve the health of mothers and their babies in the city and to encourage prenatal care. Enrollees receive benefits such as prenatal education, insurance assistance, access to a 24-hour on-call nurse hotline and direct physician line, enrollment in an incentive-based rewards program.