Hopes and, for some, fears rise as Broward's two public hospital systems move closer

Broward County’s two largest employers outside the school system are also its two largest hospital systems: Memorial Healthcare and Broward Health.

And they are moving closer together, sharing top leadership and seeking a new law that would allow much more.

That coming together of what were once fierce competitors has some employees concerned that it could lead to massive job cuts.

But hospital executives and board members say those fears are misplaced and that increased cooperation and coordination will only serve to help patients.

Broward Health and Memorial Healthcare System are both taxpayer-funded public health systems. They must accommodate anyone who shows up at their doors, whether they can pay or not.

For Broward Health, those are people in need north of roughly Griffin Road; for Memorial, those south of that line.

Now those lines are being blurred as leaders of the smaller, less financially successful Broward Health have been taking over key positions at Memorial, leaving some to fear job cuts are coming next.

At the helm of both systems: Shane Strum, who was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff until returning to his native Broward in 2021 to be president and CEO of Broward Health.

Then, six months ago, the board DeSantis appointed to run Memorial Healthcare System named Strum their interim chief executive as well, handing Strum unprecedented power over Broward’s two public health systems and the 28,000 doctors, nurses and other employees who, combined, manage $4.5 billion a year in revenue.

“The goal is to make sure that the two hospital systems have an opportunity to collaborate better together to really be able to do more things together,” Strum said in an interview with NBC6 Investigates.

And Elizabeth Justen, chair of Memorial’s board of commissioners, tells NBC6, “Strum’s exceptional performance has given us no reason to search for a new CEO. With more than 12 years of experience at Memorial, we consider Mr. Strum’s role a promotion from within, and we know who we want leading Memorial.” 

He knows both systems well, having been a senior vice president at Memorial and served on its board.

At Broward Health, he and his board say he has turned things around for the better.

“I think Shane’s doing a great job. I believe he's the perfect person for this job,” said board member Ray Berry. And a Broward spokeswoman notes the systems have shared executives before to temporarily fill vacancies or help with key projects.

But not as CEO of both – and Strum’s six-month reign at Memorial has stoked fears, especially over a bill Strum’s lobbyists are pushing that seeks to exempt whatever the boards do from state and federal antitrust law.

Strum doesn’t see that as a problem.

“Broward Health and Memorial are sisters, right?” he said, adding, “We don't compete with each other… So, I think the two organizations that have a better understanding of where they want to go really can create more efficiencies.”

When Strum says “efficiencies,” some critics hear “job cuts” -- especially after he fired 66 Memorial employees last month and demoted or gave pay cuts to another 30 or so.

“I think out of 17,500, we did a minor restructuring,” he said. “You saw 60 folks that are not there now. And I think that's probably it right now.”

“Probably?”

“Right now?”

Words not reassuring to supporters of Memorial, nearly 1,700 of whom have endorsed a petition warning of Strum seizing “monopolistic control and unchecked power” if the legislature passes and his former boss, DeSantis, signs the bill. With less than a month left in the legislative session, though, it appears the bill is stalled in committee and is not on a fast track to passage.

In her statement to NBC6, Justen dismissed those behind the petition as “a handful of disgruntled individuals (who) have decided to anonymously spread intentional false information to create dissension across our system,” noting no one took an opportunity to offer public comment during a recent board meeting.

Still, those signing the petition – some of whom told NBC6 they fear retribution if they speak out publicly -- warn the boards could “eliminate, merge, or privatize services,” leaving the public with “fewer choices … longer wait times … reduced access to specialists.”

Memorial’s board vice chair Steven Harvey said early results from the systems’ “Better Together” initiative show the opposite. “Contrary to what naysayers think, we will actually be creating additional locations, enhancing mobile and virtual care, expanding our provider base and creating greater access to primary and maternity care,” he said in a statement to NBC6.

Broward Health board member Berry says it’s all about cooperation and Memorial employees concerned about firings “don't need to be. There is no mass firing coming.”

Berry, the healthcare finance expert, says money can be saved.

Berry, the son-in-law, says lives can be saved, pointing to the 2019 death of his father-in-law, longtime television executive Bob Leider.

He was diagnosed about nine months earlier with multiple myeloma

After getting his first drug treatment at Memorial, he transferred to Broward Health, but his medical records did not come with him and could not be readily accessed electronically, Berry said.

So, when he was given a drug at Broward, medical records indicating he should be admitted overnight for observation never made it to his caregivers, Berry said.

“Those medical records would have indicated that he had lung damage and that the drug that they were about to administer them could and would be lethal, and it was,” Berry said. “He got the treatment in an outpatient basis, went home, his lungs filled up with fluid that evening from the drugs, and he passed overnight.”

Berry blames “lack of communication more than anything else, lack of medical record exchange is really the way I look at it.”

Both systems are now on the same records system, though, and Berry sees Strum’s leadership of both as a big plus, saying, “Any coordination or cooperation has been good for the patients of Broward.”

Both he and Strum said a merger of the two systems is neither necessary nor imminent.

But comparing the top executives at Broward Health to those now running Memorial, and it’s clear some merging of leadership is already occurring.

In addition to Strum being the CEO of both, Broward’s chief operating officer, general counsel and vice president of communications are also doing the same jobs at Memorial – though, like Strum, without any further compensation.

That, Berry said, is a scene unimaginable years ago, long before he was on the Broward Health board when – in his private role as a healthcare executive who helps systems get reimbursed by insurers -- he met with the leaders of both systems.

“They were then talking about doing work together, and they just couldn't get over, they just couldn't get over either the egos or the working conditions with each other,” he said. “They didn't respect each other.”

The spokeswoman doing double duty said discussions are taking place among Memorial’s leaders “with outside candidates for several leadership roles, including that of COO of the system as well as system flagship hospital Memorial Regional Hospital’s CEO – an interim role currently being held by former Memorial President & CEO Aurelio Fernandez.”

But the board chair said Strum’s perch atop Memorial’s administration is right where the board boards him to stay.