Today is National Nurses Day. As we pause to recognize our most vital and, all too often, unsung heroes of our health care team, we realize how incredibly lucky we are to have the best nursing staff at UHealth! As one of our ENT residents recently felt compelled to write about Dunia Gomez, a nurse on the cardiac/telemetry floor at University of Miami Hospital, “amazing and caring nurses” rarely get the recognition they deserve.
As National Doctors’ Day approaches this Saturday, I would like to recognize and thank each of you for your unwavering dedication to enhancing the health and well-being of our community, and beyond.
My goal when I became your dean was to continue building on the successes and expectations of my predecessors, to have an outstanding academic medical center with a clear focus on our missions of education, clinical care, research, and community service.
I have been reflecting on this past year. A year ago in January, our expenses were exceeding revenues, the University’s president and trustees were concerned, as was I, and it had become clear that in order to overcome our challenges we had to execute a major turnaround.
As we pause Monday to reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., most of us will find renewed inspiration in his peerless eloquence on racial equality and the devastating effects of poverty.
Nearly a half-century after his death, Dr. King’s words still resonate with riveting power, but perhaps none as much across UHealth and the Miller School, the Miami VA and the Jackson Health System as his indictment of a healthcare system rife with unequal access and worse outcomes for people who live on the margins. “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane,” King said in 1966.
With the holidays and the New Year on the horizon, we would like to pause for a moment to thank each and every one of you for all you have done over this difficult year, and all you will do in the future to advance UHealth and the Miller School’s many missions.