Major hospital system at a crossroad

Broward Health board interviewing three for CEO position

By Cindy Krischer Goodman

Broward Health, the five-hospital health system that serves hundreds of thousands of patients in Broward County, finds itself at a critical juncture.

Will the health system choose a new CEO with political ties to the most powerful man in the state, or will the board select someone with high-level experience running a health system to steer it through the pandemic?

On Monday, the interview process begins.

Shane Strum, chief of staff for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Joseph Mullany, Chief Executive Officer of Bayfront Health System in St. Petersburg; and Dr. Michael Hochberg, a senior executive of a

Texas health network, president of a physician group and board-certified in emergency medicine.

For the last two years, Broward Health, also known as the North Broward Hospital District, has had a leader focused on bringing much-needed stability to a system plagued by leadership turnover, internal infighting and financial malfeasance. With Gino Santorio as CEO, the health system has been able to improve its credit rating, attract new doctors, improve morale, complete expansion projects, and navigate the pandemic.

Now, as Santorio leaves to become CEO of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, his successor must contend with steering the taxpayer-funded health system through one of the most challenging times for hospitals.

In 2020, Broward Health took some big hits as COVID-19 tore through the state. Admissions dropped, Florida’s governor put a pause on lucrative elective surgeries, and the coronavirus placed staggering demands on doctors, nurses and staff.

“What the system needs now is an experienced CEO,” said Andrew Klein, former chairman of Broward Health’s board of commissioners. “Broward Health has to be run as a for-profit system, which means as efficiently as possible. You don’t want to rely on handouts. You need