Cancer

Children's Services

Heart Care

Neurological Services

Orthopaedics

Transplant

Women & Families

Charity Care & Social Responsibility
Answering the call to care

Shands HealthCare’s commitment as a responsible, accountable steward of our resources is the cornerstone of our not-for-profit mission.

Shands at UF and Shands Jacksonville are two of the state’s six statutory teaching hospitals, and along with our community hospitals they make Shands one of the state’s most relied upon “safetynet” health systems. Shands is one of Florida’s largest Medicaid and charity-care providers.

Not-for-profit healthcare systems play a unique and critical role in serving area residents. We receive tax exemptions from federal, state and local governments and are trusted to provide benefits back to our communities. These “community benefits” include the provision of uncompensated care for which no payment is received from patients or insurers.

According to the 2008 American Community Survey (US Census data) released this fall, Florida is among the top five US states with the highest percent of uninsured residents. More than 20 percent of Floridians (one in five) are uninsured.

Safety-net hospitals and health systems provide healthcare access and a significant level of services to patients who would otherwise have limited or no access to healthcare due to their insurance status, financial circumstances or their medical condition.

Approximately 3.8 million Florida residents are without health insurance. More than 649,000 of these uninsured residents live in north central and northeast Florida. Many people who have some healthcare coverage find it falls short of their families’ needs.