Dr. Larry Antonucci
Lee Health CEO talks New York Yankees, guitar heroes, highenergy cycling—and health care
One of the myths is that you can put it away. This job is 24-7. There is no putting it away.”
— Dr. Larry Antonucci, Lee Health CEO
Don’t expect to find Lee Health CEO Dr. Larry Antonucci guzzling a mocha in your nearest Starbucks. Highoctane, high-caffeine beverages aren’t his style. He’s a Dunkin’ Donuts decaf guy who usually has one cup— and one cup only—every morning in his office.
“I find that if I drink r egular coffee my heart rate gets busy,” Antonucci said.
A decaf a day for the doc has been his habit for 20 years. On a winter morning Antonucci spent time talking coffee, health care, guitar heroes and the New York Yankees.
His office provides a view of two of Lee Health’s best-known buildings—Healthpark Medical Center and the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.
Antonucci is the man in charge of those facilities and more than 13,000 employees scattered around more than 100 locations.
Last year, the doctor replaced former CEO Jim Nathan. However, Antonucci wasn’t plucked out of obscurity or from his earlier work in obstetrics and gynecology. He had been the system’s COO since 2011, working side by side with Nathan. He inherited a huge job, considering that to find a larger health system in Florida than Lee Health, you’d have to travel to Miami or Tampa.
Antonucci has witnessed up close the system’s growth. When he started practicing medicine in Lee County in 1983 what is now Lee Health was just Lee Memorial Hospital on Cleveland Avenue south of downtown Fort Myers. “To even think of living south of College Parkway was a crazy thought,” Antonucci recalled.
Over the years Lee Memorial acquired Cape Coral, Southwest Regional, and Gulf Coast hospitals in addition to building Healthpark and Golisano. And the growth hasn’t stopped. The system is now building Lee Health-Coconut Point in Estero, which it hopes to develop into a full-fledged hospital.
For many years it was Nathan who answered the questions and led the system. Now, Antonucci is the No. 1 guy after years of being No. 2. “Until you actually step into the shoes you don’t really realize the demands of the job,” Antonucci admitted. “Especially from the external world, from the community relations perspective. So one of the biggest transitions is to step away from a lot of the day-to-day operations of the system. The estimate is that you spend 80 percent of your time on external things and 20 percent of the time overseeing the operations.”
Antonucci was asked how his style as CEO contrasts with that of his predecessor. “Having been practicing in this community for so long it provides me a little different framework in that I practiced obstetrics and gynecology here for 24 years,” Antonucci explained. “So a day doesn’t go by that I don’t see a patient somewhere, whether it’s in Publix or Dunkin’ Donuts, and so I have a real connection to a lot of the patients. That is a
connection Jim didn’t have.
Continuing, he elaborated, “Similarly, I think about my relation with the medical staff. I worked side by side with many of these physicians, and so there is a certain level of trust that we’ve developed over these years.”
Antonucci has one of Southwest Florida’s most high-profile jobs that no doubt challenges his balance of life and work. “One of the myths is that you can put it away,” Antonucci said. “This job is 24-7. There is no putting it away. So you have to compartmentalize.”
He hops on a Peloton bike, designed for high-energy workouts, three or four times a week and takes guitar lessons on Saturday mornings. He started music lessons when he was 13 years old and now in his 60s has returned to the instrument, which he finds eases his stress. “Even if I pick up the guitar for 15 minutes,” Antonucci said. However, he has no illusions that he’ll ever play anything like his guitar heroes Eric Clapton and Joe Walsh. “I’m still a beginner,” admitted Antonucci, who has an electric and acoustic guitar.
Mention of the guitar brings back other childhood memories: the New York Yankees. He played baseball as a boy and still has his glove from junior high. Because his father was an accountant for players such as Yogi Berra, he got to meet many baseballers, including the stars of that era.
“I have a picture of the day of my first communion,” Antonucci said. “I was in a little suit, and I was in second grade. I’m sitting on Mickey Mantle’s lap at my kitchen table. He came to the house.” Those are fond memories for the man who is leading Southwest Florida’s largest health care provider into the future.
From his office he can see how far Lee Health has come since he arrived in 1983. Healthpark and Golisano Children’s Hospital are daily reminders of Lee Health’s transformation over 35 years.
Freelance writer Glenn Miller is president of the Southwest Florida Historical Society and a frequent contributor to TOTI Media.