UF Health Shands will partner with these nearby hospitals to train more physicians

UF Health Shands and Central Florida Health are officially teaming up to train more physicians after facing an increase in demand.

The hospitals announced the affiliation agreement early February, which is aimed at serving residents of Lake, Sumter and Marion counties. Don Henderson, CEO of Central Florida Health, said UF has had an informal relationship with Central Florida Health for several years, but both parties decided making the partnership official would make working together easier.

“The entire relationship was set up in order to benefit the community members that live in our area,” Henderson said.

The agreement plans to provide a better continuity of care and transfer of information between hospital officials, Henderson said. This will also allow for smooth patient transfers.

Henderson said due to the increase in population migration to Florida, more physicians are needed to treat more patients. The agreement is aimed to find ways to locally train and educate primary care physicians.

“All of the existing health providers are going to have to cooperate in more clever, more innovative ways,” he said, “because otherwise we’re going to get overwhelmed with this demographic flood that’s coming to our area.”

Ed Jimenez, the CEO of UF Health Shands, wrote in an email that the solution to serving the growing population is not through more medical schools but through more training programs.

Both of the hospitals’ officials will begin exploring the establishment of medical residency training programs, Jimenez said. Through the partnership, UF College of Medicine graduates could train at Central Florida Health’s Leesburg Regional Medical Center and The Villages Regional Hospital.

“We look forward to providing the highest-quality, most compassionate care possible, with superior outcomes for the patients we both serve,” Jimenez said.

UF Health Shands Hospital