UF Health celebrated its fifth year of the five-year Forward Together plan with an unveiling of the new five-year plan: the Power of Together.
On May 20, 2010, UF Health implemented Forward Together. Five years later, on Wednesday, the UF Health team looked to begin another roadmap, this time calling it Power of Together, to improve UF Health’s collaboration between the colleges.
David Guzick introduced UF President Kent Fuchs, who took the stage first and congratulated UF Health for its successful implementation of the first five-year plan.
“That progress is literally nothing short of remarkable,” Fuchs said.
“I’m deeply impressed by the progress that’s been made in rankings, and other indicators of improved patient care, increased research funding, expanding literally physical campus, and I’m equally impressed by how you all have united health across the health centers.”
Fuchs said the Power of Together will build on and celebrate the strengths of the progress that has been made, adding that he is excited to become the primary cheerleader of the Power of Together plan.
Guzick, the president of UF Health, followed Fuchs with a video that summarized the Power of Together, which looks to increase patient care, research, education, community involvement and expansion.
The video revealed new developments that included a UF Health heart and vascular hospital and a UF Health neuromedicine hospital by 2018.
The development of the hospitals will cost $415 million, according to the most recent Power of Together report.
Funding from the National Institute of Health had also increased more than 40 percent in the past five years, even when funding became difficult, Guzick said. He emphasized that the patients and community have become the center of UF Health.
“The ‘we’ and the ‘they’ have become ‘us,’” Guzick said, before introducing Isabel Garcia, dean of the College of Dentistry.
Garcia said she was drawn to UF for its diversity in culture, thought and life experiences.
Voncea Brusha, a registered nurse at UF Health for more than 45 years and an ambassador for UF Health through community outreach, said she looks forward to improving patient and community focus.
John Leonard, a student at the College of Pharmacy, spoke about how the Forward Together plan affected his education and how he looks to the Power of Together to expand on the progress of UF Health.
“If we are to understand the complex health care system we are about to enter, and strive to improve patient care, safety and quality, it is crucial that we learn to interact with one another in an interdisciplinary and diverse team,” Leonard said.
