Shane Strum describes leading two health systems at once as a “once-in-a-lifetime, unique opportunity.” As of this month, it is also his permanent job.
The boards of commissioners of the South Broward Hospital District and the North Broward Hospital District voted unanimously in separate special meetings Sept. 2 to name Mr. Strum permanent president and CEO of Hollywood, Fla.-based Memorial Healthcare System, a role he had held on an interim basis since 2024. He continues to lead Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Broward Health, where he has been CEO since 2021. Together, the two taxpayer-funded districts account for 10 hospitals and about 28,000 employees.
Mr. Strum’s two-year interim tenure was notable for its activity. Memorial has board authorization for four freestanding emergency rooms, two of which are open and a third is under construction. Meanwhile, the board of commissioners approved a $670 million bed tower at Memorial Regional Hospital that will add 150 private rooms and 22 operating rooms.
Broward Health went live with Epic in November 2025 in a $250 million implementation. Broward Health also launched a pediatric partnership with Nicklaus Children’s Hospital March 1, an arrangement that brought Nicklaus Children’s physicians and services to Broward Health, with Broward Health’s pediatric employees and clinical staff transitioning to become Nicklaus Children’s employees. Memorial also restructured executive roles, with several Broward Health leaders holding the same titles at both systems.
Mr. Strum said the permanent appointment does not change how he has approached the work.
“Honestly, I don’t think anything has changed,” he told Becker’s. “I’ve always approached the interim CEO role at Memorial as a permanent position, and I treated it as a very special, unique opportunity to work with both organizations.”
Leading both systems, he said, requires a structure that does not depend on him being in two places at once. Mr. Strum said the systems have leadership teams at the hospital and executive levels, with hospital leadership including CEOs, COOs, CFOs, chief medical officers, chief nursing officers and HR leaders. The Memorial Physician Group and Broward Health Physician Group also have their own presidents and CFOs. He said the depth of that leadership bench is what makes a dual role workable.
“If you have a strong team that you’re not micromanaging, that you believe in, but that you’re meeting with often to make sure the objectives, vision and mission of the board of commissioners are being led, then you’re doing great,” he said. “One CEO could not do it all without the support of a strong team.”
Mr. Strum also relies on a daily routine that includes a decidedly old-school organizational tool: a piece of paper he carries with his calendar in his left jacket pocket.
“I’m kind of old school. I still use all the technology, but I keep a piece of paper and my calendar in my left jacket pocket every day, and I write down everything: what we need to do, what we need to accomplish, who we need to meet with, what phone calls need to be followed up on, what the key priorities are, what things might have slipped through the gaps that were brought to our attention that we need to do,” he said.
Despite having a single CEO, the two districts remain separately governed, with independent boards, budgets and operations. They also continue to compete in some areas, including for patients, physicians and staff. Mr. Strum emphasized that distinction when discussing how far collaboration between the systems can extend.
“It’s important for your readers to really understand that we still are two separate organizations with two separate boards and operations,” he said. “There might be areas where they compete. Where we see the greatest opportunity is clinical integration.”
That integration work has concentrated on oncology, neurosciences and cardiac care. Memorial has had a partnership with Tampa, Fla.-based Moffitt Cancer Center for about a decade, including a $125 million facility at Memorial’s West campus, and Mr. Strum said the current question is how Memorial Cancer Institute, Broward Health and Moffitt can jointly cover gaps in cancer services in the northern part of Broward County. The systems held their first joint physician retreat off-site last week, and the request that came out of it was cross-credentialing so physicians could see patients at both systems.
Mr. Strum said the collaboration has also produced an unexpected benefit in physician recruitment.
“One thing we’ve learned as we’ve been talking about collaboration is that we’re actually seeing an uptick in being able to recruit physicians more quickly,” Mr. Strum said. “They’re seeking us out, which is amazing.”
The physician retreat also highlighted another opportunity for the systems: developing an academic partnership. Neither system has an academic partner, despite large graduate medical education programs and clinical rotations, and Mr. Strum said physicians raised its absence as a barrier to expanding research and clinical trials.
Both systems are public, not-for-profit safety nets, and a joint initiative called Better Together, launched in February 2025, is focused on expanding access, coordinating care and addressing health care gaps across Broward County. An example of how Better Together has already found success is through connecting uninsured patients with primary and maternity care rather than relying on emergency departments for basic services. Mr. Strum said the primary care side is averaging more than 100 new patients a month through a toll-free number, with more than 1,200 people who previously had no primary care physician now attached to one.
The maternity care effort began with a clinic serving Lauderdale Lakes and Lauderhill, two Broward County cities where Mr. Strum said there were no remaining OB-GYNs. Three OB-GYNs agreed to work there, while an on-site daycare was added so mothers with children could get to appointments, and a community nonprofit contributed $800,000 upfront for the lease and renovation. The initial projection was that the clinic might see about 200 mothers a year.
“This collaboration, in just over one year, has seen 2,000 mothers who didn’t have an OB-GYN or primary care physician,” he said.
Asked how he decides what deserves his own attention, Mr. Strum pointed to the routine he has built around the two systems. He said his days start early and end late, with time spent rounding at hospitals and meeting with executive teams across both organizations.
Capital investment is another area receiving significant attention. Mr. Strum said the systems are focused on expanding access while keeping pace with other health systems investing in newer facilities in the market. Between the two systems, he said there are about half a dozen new primary care offices, six freestanding emergency rooms that have either recently opened or are in development, two new medical office buildings at Broward Health and Memorial’s new bed tower.
Mr. Strum expects health systems to continue reconsidering how leadership roles are structured, including giving executives larger geographic footprints or responsibilities across multiple facilities.
“They’re either looking at how the organization could be functioning, or whether there are some people who can have more of a dual role or a larger footprint through geography,” he said. “Instead of just being over one, you’re over two. If you’re over two, what does the team and structure look like? So I think you’ll see continued change.”
For other CEOs, Mr. Strum said the lessons from the past two years include finding opportunities to collaborate, maintaining financial discipline, investing for growth and communicating more about the work health systems are doing. He said hospitals often become most visible to people when they need them.
“Hospitals are invisible until you need us,” Mr. Strum said. “But when you need us, we’re the most important thing to you, your loved one, your family, your neighbor, or whoever needs help here.”
That makes telling the health system’s story part of the job, he said.
“It’s OK to tell your story and to brag about the great things your health system is doing, that your doctors are doing,” he said. “Collaborate, be on offense, work on those service lines, be financially responsible, and then just tell the story.”
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