Shane Strum, once the trusted right-hand man to Gov. Ron DeSantis, now wields a level of power never before seen in Broward County.<\/p>\n
Nine months into his interim role, Strum is calling the shots as CEO of Memorial Healthcare System \u2014 a 17,400-employee public hospital district \u2014 for the symbolic salary of just $1 a year. At the same time, he\u2019s still at the helm of Broward Health, the massive health care network that dominates the northern half of the county.<\/p>\n
And yet, for all this influence, Strum doesn\u2019t have a formal contract at Memorial. He works at the behest of the governor-appointed, seven-member board of commissioners, and they can terminate his employment at any time. So can he.<\/p>\n
Strum, a Broward County native, is the only person to have ever simultaneously led both massive public health districts in their roughly 75-year history. His strategic direction helps determine how much every property owner in the county pays in taxes for healthcare, what type of healthcare patients receive at Broward County\u2019s public hospitals, and where Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System add medical services and new facilities. Strum has sway over hundreds of contracts, thousands of employees and billions in revenue.<\/p>\n
Memorial\u2019s board members say they are not conducting a search for a CEO and will likely offer Strum the job permanently on his one-year anniversary in September. Strum said he will likely accept.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of power for one individual,\u201d said David DiPietro, a Broward County attorney and a former board member of Broward Health. \u201cOne individual would be controlling nine hospitals, including every trauma hospital in Broward. That person will control how trauma is initiated throughout the county through the fire department and EMS. That person would have a budget bigger than the sheriff\u2019s office, bigger than the airport authority, and bigger than the port authority. It might even be bigger than the county \u2026 the amount of money and control would be pretty exponential for somebody not elected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unique to Strum are his deep political connections. He\u2019s served multiple Republican governors (Charlie Crist, Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis) and helped shape policy at the highest state levels. This makes him adept at navigating Tallahassee politics, particularly with a current Republican governor and a majority-Republican Legislature. With his political skills and control over two large health care systems, Strum, at least for now, has become one of the most influential, yet unelected, figures in the region.<\/p>\n
At 55, Strum walks fast, talks fast, and moves like a ball of energy, claiming he thrives on work. A married father with a teenage daughter, he\u2019s raising her in Hollywood, where he grew up. His relentless drive fuels his leadership, and he often uses the word \u201cexcited\u201d when describing the future of the two hospital systems. However, not everyone is excited about Strum\u2019s authority, and some are outraged<\/a>.<\/p>\n Broward faces a health care crossroads<\/p>\n This new consolidation of leadership and collaboration between the two health systems<\/a>, with nearly 30,000 employees combined, has energized some and angered others. It comes as Broward healthcare is at a critical juncture: competition intensifies, Medicaid cuts mean the uninsured population is likely to grow, and technology requires more investment and training.<\/p>\n Broward is the only county in the state with two public health districts. Each board is run by seven political appointees \u2014 all chosen by the governor. Memorial currently has two unfilled seats. Both health systems aim to provide medical care to all populations, regardless of their capacity to pay. Memorial Healthcare System has consistently been more financially successful and operates every hospital in the southern part of Broward County. To the north, Broward Health serves a district with a larger percentage of low-income patients and more competition from for-profit hospitals. The two public health systems compete for doctors, nurses, donors and insured patients, whose coverage pays for much of the hospitals\u2019 bills.<\/p>\n But should they compete? Would Broward patients benefit from the two health districts combining, with Strum as the leader of a mega health system? And, is now the right time for change?<\/p>\n Health care experts say that working as a single unit would position Broward Health and Memorial to cut costs, increase purchasing power, and offer better care to all patients in the county. <\/strong>They can\u2019t legally negotiate deals together as separate taxing districts without a legislative change.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a very large percentage of our population that lacks health insurance,\u201d said Steven Ullmann, professor and director of the Center for Health Management and Policy at Miami Herbert Business School. \u201cWhile Broward has two systems, I think what you\u2019re seeing is that they themselves have realized that that\u2019s not necessarily the best way to go about things because their mission is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, the taxpayer-funded Broward Health is picking up the tab for Strum\u2019s leadership. He was hired at Broward Health in 2021 with an annual salary of $920,000, and bonus and other benefits for a total compensation package of $1.3 million. Since then his salary or his contract has been amended three times, but the specifics of the increased salary adjustments have not been released to the South Florida Sun Sentinel despite repeated public records requests, nor have they been disclosed at public meetings.<\/p>\n While steering Broward Health, with its four general hospitals and a children\u2019s hospital, has always been a full-time job, its board has signed off on its leader also serving as the interim CEO of Memorial.<\/p>\n \u201cI never saw any reason why the two systems were two systems,\u201d said Nancy Gregoire, an attorney and member of Broward Health\u2019s Board of Commissioners. \u201cWe did factor in that we are paying his salary. But we have spent years competing with Memorial, and that didn\u2019t serve anybody\u2019s good or purpose. People are always better cooperating with each other than challenging each other, and this is our opportunity to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Gregoire said decades of fighting haven\u2019t been productive for either health system.<\/p>\n \u201cOur boards fought with each other, our doctors and nurses fought with each other, and who suffers because of that? The taxpayers of Broward County. Now, all of a sudden, it\u2019s like a new dawn,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m excited by it, and the time hasn\u2019t come yet, but when the time does come to combine those two systems, you can bet I will be on the side of saying yes.\u201d<\/p>\n At Broward Health, Strum took the top job in March 2021, just as the health system was beginning to stabilize after years of significant management turnover, compliance issues, and financial mismanagement. Over the past four years, Strum has improved Broward Health\u2019s finances and credit ratings, expanded its clinical and academic footprint, and created a maternal health collaboration with Memorial called Better Together, according to reports presented to the Broward Health board.<\/p>\n Strum ruffles feathers at Memorial<\/p>\n Strum\u2019s nine months at the helm of Memorial have been anything but smooth.<\/p>\n As interim CEO at Memorial, the board gave Strum a straightforward mandate: Examine every corner of a health care system with six hospitals in South Broward County \u2014 and make it better. In doing so, Strum has moved at what chair Liz Justen describes as \u201cwarp speed,\u201d bringing remote employees back to the office, eliminating positions<\/a>, firing and demoting executives at all levels, and renegotiating physician and vendor contracts to make them more beneficial for Memorial. Broward Health\u2019s general counsel and chief operating officer now serve in those roles at Memorial as well.<\/p>\n Strum bulldozed into a system that had been well-funded and unmotivated to change.<\/p>\n Changes came with fallout: Some physicians have quit, one high-level doctor fired by Strum sued (but lost the challenge), and a Memorial board member resigned. The November 2024 announcement that Broward Health had entered a collaboration with Nicklaus Children\u2019s Hospital of Miami rather than Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital, operated by Memorial, was seen as a betrayal by some physicians at Memorial. Terminated staff members told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that Strum has damaged morale and created an environment of fear in a system where culture has always been a priority, even calling the sit<\/p>\n \u201cWhen there are changes that are determined to be important to be made and somebody makes them, they are probably not going to be a very popular person,\u201d said Brad Friedman, a Memorial Healthcare board member.<\/p>\n Strum said he recognizes his fast-paced, aggressive style has caused angst.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a Broward guy. I\u2019m going to stay here. I care about both systems. And if you give me a task, I\u2019m going to get it done,\u201d he said. \u201cI think when you\u2019re moving and making changes, you\u2019re bound to have some dissent.\u201d<\/p>\n Years ago, Strum worked at Memorial Healthcare System as senior vice president and had previously served on its board. He brushes aside the tension among staff and says he is focused on improving health care in Broward County, his longtime home.<\/p>\n \u201cThis place was complacent, not moving in the right direction, and stuck in the mud,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have moved the place forward. Now, where we might have fallen out is on some of the communication. I move so fast that I sometimes forget we\u2019ve got to go and hold hands and tell everybody the story. But because we\u2019re so far behind in some areas, there\u2019s no time for that. If we don\u2019t catch up now, we\u2019ll be overtaken by the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n Almost daily, an anonymous critic who claims to represent Memorial doctors sends emails to news media, politicians, and Memorial Healthcare employees, writing angrily that Strum has dismantled organizational culture and fostered fear among employees.<\/p>\n Dan Lewis, a longtime critic of Broward Health, says Strum\u2019s leadership at both organizations has made it more difficult for the public to get information, even at board meetings. \u201cEverything is done in private briefings, nothing is done in public,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cHe has eliminated transparency in both systems.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorney George Platt, a prominent figure in Broward County\u2019s legal and civic circles, says that leading two massive health systems serving the most vulnerable residents of Broward requires open communication and the expectation of pushback.<\/p>\n \u201cShane is obviously capable, a good organizer and generally respected,\u201d Platt said. \u201cBut you know, any time you try to marry up two systems that are not identical, you\u2019re going to have a bunch of challenges, not the least of which are your doctors who have opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n Brett Cohen, a bariatric surgeon who chairs Memorial\u2019s physician leadership council, said Strum swept in and made changes without communicating with physicians and staff, who were accustomed to being informed. \u201cNo one knew what to make of the changes or where it was going to land,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of the senior leadership was migrated out, and new leadership came in, and there wasn\u2019t a lot of direction for us to know what was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Cohen said he took his complaints directly to Strum.<\/p>\n \u201cI think once that was kind of ironed out and that communication became a little bit easier and more open, it became very obvious to everybody that it was a good change,\u201d Cohen said. \u201cI think the ability to grow and expand and take care of additional patients is what everybody\u2019s been looking for, and I think that\u2019s what\u2019s made everybody much happier with the way things are going right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Memorial, which has been the only health system in South Broward, now has competition. Baptist Health and HCA Florida Healthcare are opening freestanding emergency departments in Pembroke Pines.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile no one was doing anything, the competition is incredibly bright and they know that this is a gem of a community, and they moved in,\u201d Strum said. He says as interim CEO, he quickly pushed forward Memorial\u2019s plans to build two free-standing emergency departments in South Broward.<\/p>\n Strum says he also moved Memorial forward on a $670 million new bed & surgical tower<\/a> at its flagship Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood and created a marketing campaign for Memorial Cancer Institute.<\/p>\n Memorial\u2019s board members say Strum is the right leader for the system and want to make him their permanent CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really don\u2019t have any reason to want to look anywhere else for someone that will do a better job for the community than he is,\u201d said Memorial board member Steven Harvey.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are finally trying to get on the offense of all of the competition that\u2019s coming into our market and really provide better and accessible health care for Broward County, and he\u2019s making it happen,\u201d said Justen, chair of the Memorial Healthcare System board of directors.<\/p>\n \u201cShane is the best CEO that this organization has ever had in my 25 years,\u201d said board member Laura Raybin Miller. \u201cI really think that he is the right person for the times, given where we are as a system. He understands the workings of the system and he\u2019s able to get things done.\u201d<\/p>\n The future of Broward health care<\/p>\n With both systems under one leader, speculation is rampant that Broward\u2019s two health districts will merge.<\/p>\n Proposed bills in this year\u2019s legislative session would have paved the way and allowed Broward County\u2019s two taxpayer-supported hospital districts \u2014 Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System \u2014 to go into a for-profit or not-for-profit business together without fear of violating state or federal antitrust laws. The bills did not get approved<\/a>, yet they set off a furor, in part because they surfaced soon after a round of firings at Memorial.<\/p>\n