Major hospital system at a crossroad

Broward Health board interviewing three for CEO position

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

someone to come in and bring stability and restructure where necessary to provide better healthcare.”

The Broward Health system includes Broward Health Medical Center, Broward Health North, Broward Health Imperial Point, Broward Health Coral Springs, Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital as well as urgent cares and community health services.

Broward Health’s governing board is operating with only four commissioners; three of seven seats remain vacant. To find their new leader, the commissioners — chaired by Nancy Gregoire — hired a search firm to bring forward candidates and has set aside the entire Monday to interview the top three.

Strum, who now works for Gov. Ron DeSantis, formerly held the chief of staff position for then-Gov. Charlie Crist and served as transition adviser for then-Gov. Rick Scott. He also has worked as executive vice president for Memorial Healthcare System. Mullany has experience running individual hospitals in New York, Florida and Massachusetts, integrating a health system and recruiting physicians. Hochberg has helped lead a tax-supported public health network in Texas.

Ray Berry, a Broward Health board member, said while the choices lack diversity — three white men — they do represent highly qualified candidates. Berry noted that the salary — under $1 million annually — is less than the amount most for-profit health systems offer.

“We need someone who can handle the political landscape but knows how to run a hospital,” Berry said. “We don’t need the traditional CEO. We have turned the corner. Now we have some political needs, some clinical needs, and some quality needs.”

Berry said the board doesn’t want a major shift in direction, but it does need some charter revisions that will allow the health system to serve patients across county lines. He said Strum knows the people and the processes in Broward County and Tallahassee. “That could be useful.”

“We don’t want someone who is going to come in and rest,” Berry said. “We have to keep pushing forward. We are a taxing district. We belong to the community. We need to make sure we are performing,”

For their part, the doctors who work for Broward Health want a leader who understands the inner workings of a hospital and the staff needs during a pandemic.

Broward Health struggled mightily before Santorio’s appointment. The problems included rapid physician turnover, low morale, improper staffing, unsigned vendor contracts, unpaid bills and complaints from employees of a toxic work environment that affected patient care.

Dr. Husman Khan, who has worked at Broward Health for 43 years, said the instability in leadership

— four CEOs in five years — took a toll.

“A lot of good physicians left,” Kahn said “We need someone who can build the morale of the medical staff and attract good doctors. There is a lot of competition now from other hospitals.”

Under Santorio, who took a hands-on approach, the health system has been able to settle some of the major lawsuits and clear up federal violations that had cost time, money and created need to revise processes.

Khan said Santorio’s two-year stint as CEO wasn’t long enough to accomplish enough improvement. He would like to see a CEO with operational experience who will stick around longer. “Expertise running a hospital system. That’s what we need.”

Santorio leaves the job on Feb. 11. Berry said the board will move quickly to fill the position.