UF Health Jacksonville

The University of Florida health system is exploring ways to better engage Black adults in need of health care.

Patrick Green has served as executive vice president of Yale New Haven Health, Connecticut's largest health care system.

UF Health Jacksonville also got $80 million from the state. Hospital leaders say the money will be needed for modernizing the region's only Level 1 trauma center.

A year ago, the CDC awarded states and local health departments $2.25 billion to help people of color and other populations at higher risk from COVID. But a KHN review shows public health agencies across the country have been slow to spend it.

A physician at the new centers will direct patients to the level of care they need — a concept new to Northeast Florida.

The Florida Blue Foundation is granting $3.7 million to UF Health's Urban Health Alliance to establish the statewide Center for Health Equity and Social Justice.

The money will pay for a new trauma center in the next four years. Hospital administrators say the current center is outdated, overcrowded and in dire need of renovations.

The six-story tower will include 124 rooms at the UF North campus. It is expected to open in early 2024.

Dr. Lisa Gwynn of the UM Miller School of Medicine tells Florida Roundup that many pediatricians "feel as though this is part of the political narrative that is being pushed forward by Gov. DeSantis."

The health system says the facility, nearly four decades old, is in dire need of renovation. Legislators included the money in the state budget they will vote on Monday.