Patrick Green said the reputation and mission of UF Health Jacksonville were the reasons he decided to take the job as its new CEO.
Green, 49, is a career health care administrator. He most recently was president and CEO of Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and vice president at Yale New Haven Health in Connecticut. He began those positions in 2017.
Yale New Haven Health is the largest health system in Connecticut 30,000 employees, 8,200 medical staff and $6 billion in net revenue, according to the May news release announcing Green’s hiring at UF Health Jacksonville.
Before joining Yale New Haven Health, he held executive positions at hospitals in Colorado and worked at UW Medicine in Seattle.
“I have always been attracted to and had an affinity for mission-driven organizations,” Green said.
The combination of UF Health Jacksonville as a research hospital, as well as one that treats any patient despite the ability to pay, was a strong factor in his decision.
Green started the job July 10. He replaced Russ Armistead, who returned as interim CEO in 2021 after Leon Haley Jr.’s death in a watercraft accident.
Green’s first impression of the hospital was one of camaraderie.
“There is a sense of commitment to each other. There is a real sense of wanting to be the very best. That’s the impression I got throughout the interview process,” he said.
The Jacksonville City Council is creating the 2023-24 budget. The budget proposed by Mayor Donna Deegan sets aside $40 million for the hospital.
If passed, the budget item will provide $15 million to UF Health Jacksonville for indigent health care and $25 million for capital improvements to city-owned facilities.
UF Health Jacksonville is the primary trauma hospital in the city.
“I’m thankful and appreciative of the support that the city has given us,” Green said.
In March, the City Council appropriated $10 million for the future Dr. Leon Haley Jr. Trauma Center. The state included $80 million for the project in the 2022-23 budget.
The center is expected to be completed in the next three or four years. When opened, it could serve as many as 125,000 patients a year.
Green, describing his leadership style, said he is a servant leader for the hospital’s 5,000 employees.
“The reality is that I am here to help them achieve their full potential and put them in a position to do what they do best and that’s caring for our patients,” he said.
David R. Nelson, senior vice president for health affairs at the University of Florida and president of UF Health, called Green “a dynamic leader and change agent with a wide breadth of experience in health care, serving in top leadership roles for more than a decade.”
“His leadership skills and strong business acumen, coupled with UF Health Jacksonville’s mission to heal, comfort, educate and discover, position us to create tremendous impact on the delivery of high-quality care to patients throughout the region, with a goal of helping them achieve the best possible outcomes so they can return to the quality of life they deserve,” Nelson said in the news release.
Green assumes leadership as UF Health agrees to merge with Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine.
“UF Health is uniquely positioned to bring much-needed top-flight service to Northeast Florida and to ensure that all of the region’s residents have access to the very best health care available,” UF President Ben Sasse said in a May 16 news release.
UF Health has 10 hospitals in the University of Florida health system including the teaching hospital at UF Health Jacksonville. UF Health has also opened three Jacksonville-based Emergency & Urgent Care Centers.