Shands Jacksonville started in 1870 as Florida?s first nonmilitary hospital. It was known as Duval Hospital and Asylum by then, and it became a foundation for the impressive medical complex that is nowadays Shands Jacksonville. In 1901, Brewster Nursing School, which later became Methodist Medical Center, opened to care for victims of the great fire of Jacksonville. In front of Methodist Medical Center a medical facility called University Medical Center (UMC) opened in 1971. In 1982, UMC became a private, not-for-profit facility and contracted with the city of Jacksonville to provide care for the uninsured. A year later, the hospital opened the first Level I Trauma Center in Florida. UMC was then designated an affiliate of the University of Florida Health Science Center, strengthening the educational relationship between the hospital and the university in 1988.
In 1999, University Medical Center and Methodist Medical Center merged to become Shands Jacksonville, affiliated with the University of Florida and Shands HealthCare. Today, Shands Jacksonville is the largest of nine hospitals in the Shands HealthCare family. Shands Jacksonville provides a wide range of healthcare services across the continuum of care on an inpatient and outpatient basis. Among these services are: The Bone and Joint Institute provides a complete resource for all orthopaedic needs. The Center for Pain Management supplies a full range of services for the evaluation, diagnosis and management of acute, chronic or oncologic pain disorders. The Trauma Center is staffed by University of Florida surgeons and physicians, as well as nurses, paramedics and support personnel, who have had special training in the care of trauma patients and meet all educational requirements necessary to support a Level I Trauma Center.
Shands Jacksonville serves northeast Florida and several counties in southern Georgia. The hospital counts with more than 3,300 employees, all supporting the hospital's mission to heal, comfort and educate in an environment where exemplary medical care is complemented by outstanding service. Its specialized teams are made up of nurses, physicians, scientists and surgeons entrusted to provide compassionate care and the most innovative medical treatments available.