Earlier this spring, the North Broward Hospital District Board of Commissioners named Shane Strum as the new President and CEO of Broward Health, one of the 10 largest public health systems in the U.S.

A native of Broward County, Strum’s legacy of public service has spanned nearly 30 years. During that time, Strum has led initiatives that have lowered costs of prescription drugs, expanded telehealth services, improved transparency and quality in healthcare, and increased awareness of mental health and substance abuse issues throughout Florida. Strum says he was excited about this new opportunity in his hometown.
 
“I’m thrilled to continue my role in healthcare, particularly here in Broward County,” says Strum. “To have an opportunity to come back and be part of this community is unique and meaningful.”
 
Prior to joining Broward Health, Strum served as chief of staff to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Previously, Strum served as senior vice president at Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida, where he was part of an executive team that managed over 15,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $2.4 billion. He also oversaw Memorial’s strategic planning, marketing, community relations and global health functions. Before he joined Memorial’s executive team, Strum served on the South Broward Hospital District Board for several years, including two terms as chairman.
 
In his first week on the job at Broward Health, Strum says he hit the ground running.
 
"I’ve taken time to meet with internal and external teams, including senior staff, executives, and especially our caregivers on the frontline,” he says. “I feel very honored to be working alongside our caregivers, who have inspired me with their passion to enhance the quality of healthcare we provide.”
 
Strum plans on ramping up his short- and long-term strategies over the next 60 to 90 days.
 
“A primary goal is ensuring that our community has access to extremely high-quality care,” he says. “We want people to know that our hospitals are close to their home. I think one thing people don’t realize is that we have a lot of competition in our backyard from other healthcare providers, but we do have a strong, large network throughout the County.”
 
Strum says that there have been tremendous efforts made to bring technology and advanced treatment to all Broward Health locations, which helps distinguish the system from other providers.
 
“I think as we build upon existing assets and find new ways to differentiate ourselves from many of the competitors in the South Florida marketplace, we’ll continue to move the needle,” says Strum.
 
Making organizational contributions is a trend for Strum, who says he chose to join previous employers because there was something that needed to be accomplished – and he felt he could attain – to help make those businesses stronger.
 
“I feel I was able to identify and achieve specific goals for each of my former employers,” he says. “I look forward to doing the same thing at Broward Health. This system has significant opportunities, and I enter at a time when excitement and energy are high. The leadership team and I intend to capitalize on this momentum to successfully execute our short- and long-term strategies.”
 
Whether he was working in healthcare, higher education or government, Strum has always enjoyed serving the community.
 
“It’s an amazing feeling giving back and helping people,” explains Strum. “Large healthcare systems, in particular, always do a tremendous job with community engagement. Not only are they helping on the frontline, but they’re active in their local communities. When I was in the governor’s office, the team and I were hands-on during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was inspiring how health systems effectively worked together. It was probably one of the few times we had an opportunity to collectively talk to all the hospital CEOs across the state of Florida, especially in South Florida, where we have a large population and a lot of hospitals. Everybody worked extremely well together. While they are competitors, there was a real spirit of collaboration.”
 
Strum hopes the community views Broward Health as a hometown hero—one which has been on the front lines long before the pandemic.
 
“You’ve seen Broward Health rise through the tragedy in Parkland, the pandemic and so many other instances,” he says. “Throughout those events, Broward Health was there for our patients and their loved ones. The community should be extremely proud that they can call Broward Health their provider of choice. They’ve got exemplary care, and it’s available in their own backyard. I would encourage community members to become engaged with Broward Health and learn more. As the new CEO, that’s something that I want to do as well. I want to be much more active, not only with the healthcare system and the employees, but also our community.”                                                                                                                  


With so many groundbreaking cyber-attacks threatening healthcare organizations, many are upgrading their cyber protection. Unfortunately, what most don’t realize is that the threat isn’t always from within—the majority of cyber hacks are coming through third-party vendors.

“Think about all of the third-party vendors you have: billing companies, laboratories, numerous medical supply companies … the list goes on,” said Medical Malpractice and Workers’ Compensation Specialist Tom Murphy at Danna-Gracey, the largest independent medical malpractice insurance agency in Florida. “In this age of information technology, we are all interconnected, and since a lot of companies share important medical and patient information, that’s where they run into trouble.”
 
In fact, Cyber Risk Underwriters, which provides technology-driven cyber risk insurance solutions to clients including Danna-Gracey, recently released a study that estimates that 75 percent of its healthcare client’s cyber issues were the direct result of their third-party vendors being hacked.
 
“This is why we’re seeing larger healthcare organizations and hospital systems taking a closer look at vendor contracts and attempting to determine their vulnerabilities,” said Murphy. “These types of breaches can result in serious financial loss and reputational loss, as well as fines and penalties for breaching HIPAA and HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act) guidelines. That’s why some healthcare organizations are mandating that their third-party vendor provide proof of their own cyber insurance or complete a cyber-security certification.”
 
To earn this certification, a company is analyzed by a reputable cyber security organization that assesses its systems to determine the level of accessibility and vulnerability. It then provides recommendations or assists the company in putting protective processes in place.
 
“In this day and age, there’s no way to be 100 percent protected because cyber security is a moving target; criminals find new ways every day to breach cyber systems,” said Murphy, “It’s a constant battle to keep up.”
 
Without taking these steps, however, companies can find themselves in a world of trouble.
 
In 2019, for example, medical testing giants Labcorp and Quest Diagnostics were both using American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) as a third-party vendor. When that company was breached, more than 19.4 million patients’ information was determined to have been exposed over the course of a year.
 
“Quest and Labcorp had to step in and get their insurance and public relations firms involved, and as of today, they are still dealing with financial ramifications, as well as huge damage to their reputations,” said Murphy. “They are also facing a number of class-action lawsuits in federal courts and in multiple states.”
 
He added that while the companies can likely withstand these financial issues because they had the proper insurance coverage, they now have to worry about ongoing government investigations that could result in penalties and fines for noncompliance with HIPAA and HITECH.
 
“AMCA filed for Chapter 11; what was once a strong financial company is out of business because of just one breach,” he added.
 
Know Your Vendors
Murphy recommends taking the advice of cyber risk analyst Katell Thielemann, who lists three things that companies can do to help protect themselves from these types of third-party issues.
 
“First, know all of the industry regulations applicable to your organization; do your homework and understand what these regulations—like HIPAA and HITECH—are,” said Murphy, adding that other industries will have different guidelines and regulations.
 
“Second, assess the security and risk management profile for all of your vendors; before you contract with them, find out what kind of security and risk management they have in place to protect themselves and your vulnerable information.”
 
Lastly, healthcare companies should know what information needs to be protected. “What types of information do you both share? How are you going to protect it? This seems like common sense, but it often gets overlooked when signing contracts,” advised Murphy.
 
He adds that healthcare organizations are at even greater exposure with the changes brought on by the pandemic. “Simply by using remote services and telehealth, healthcare organizations have become greater targets,” he said. “Companies involved in the cyber world have confirmed seeing a large increase in attacks and exposure.”
 
Proactively making sure that medical and patient information is safe can help prevent long-term fallout.
 
“If a company has done everything they can do to follow HIPAA and HITECH; if they have done their due diligence, have the proper protocols and coverage, and make sure their third-party vendors have the proper protocols in place, then they are typically okay in terms of government fines and penalties if a breach occurs,” said Murphy.
 
“On the flip side, they will still have financial issues and reputational damage,” he added. “That’s why it’s important to work with a really robust cyber protection company; not only to get insurance in case a breach occurs, but to be proactive in preventing this exposure from happening.”


Medical-Surgical/Telemetry, Jackson Memorial Hospital
 
Ademola Ayo Akinkunmi, PMP, FACHE, MHA, CCM, RN, describes himself as a mosaic of many pieces that is still being built. He says that he is eternally grateful to God and to those who have contributed to making him who he is, and for the myriad opportunities he has had in his healthcare journey.
 
Since moving to the U.S. from Nigeria, Ayo has held many roles in health care including working in the Emergency, Medical-Surgical, and Behavioral Health departments; and serving in case management, as a nurse manager, and as the associate director of primary care centers. He is currently the director of Patient Care Services for the Medical-Surgical/Telemetry division at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
 
“I wanted to learn as much as I could when it came to healthcare because I wanted to understand how all of the different pieces come together,” explained Ayo of his eclectic career. “I decided to work in outpatient/primary care, for example, because I believe that this is where healthcare has trended, and I wanted to learn as much as I could, firsthand.”
 
Ayo obtained his RN and BSN from Miami Dade College and earned his master’s in Health Administration at Florida Atlantic University. Though he came from a financial and banking background, his interest in healthcare was piqued when his uncle had an accident that required a long recovery. Ayo stayed with him in a Nigerian hospital for about six months before returning to college.
 
“That experience shaped me,” he said. “I saw that healthcare wasn’t just about medications, but about the whole person. I realized that I wanted to study something else, and when I got the opportunity to move to the U.S., I knew that I wanted to be a nurse.
 
“The doctors were cool, but the nurses, who were spending 12 hours a day with patients, really made an impression on me,” he added. “Becoming a nurse was a self-actualization of some sort.”
 
When Ayo heard about the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), he realized that it was another avenue that he wanted to explore. “I’d seen people use FACHE at the end of their names, and wondered what it meant,” he said.
 
He credits Jackson Memorial Hospital CEO Roy Hawkins, Jr., FACHE, Rene Zipper, FACHE, Adonna Lowe, FACHE, and Adrian Parker, FACHE for encouraging him to join ACHE and to sit for the board of governors’ exam.
 
“Being a member of ACHE has been value-adding all around,” he said. “Besides the networking advantage, I have been amazed by the cutting-edge industry knowledge ACHE provides through regularly organized local chapter events, and the currency of the articles in the Journal of Healthcare Management.
 
“It’s incredible to be able to hear the thoughts of leaders in the healthcare industry,” he continued. “There’s so much information about where healthcare is going and what trends are happening; you can project this information onto your own organization to figure out if you’re on trend or not, and if you’re staying ahead of the curve.”
 
Ayo decided to pursue fellowship, and recently received his FACHE credential. “If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” he said. “The exam is tough; it tests different areas of knowledge in healthcare, which is pretty daunting. But even if you take it and don’t pass, you still haven’t lost because of knowledge gained.
 
“When you speak, you speak from a different vantage position; you can see things other people don’t see—you become more insightful and discerning,” he added of the growth that occurs. “ACHE provides you the platform that enables you to see the forest for the trees.”
 
Ayo appreciates all of the mentors that have gotten him to this point, as well as the support of Jackson Health System, which he considers “one huge mentorship program.” He pays his success forward by seeking out mentees and by continuing to encourage other healthcare leaders.
 
“I am very comfortable holding the ladder for others,” he adds.


Glenn Flores, M.D., FAAP, director of the Health Services Research Institute at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, has been named chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Dr. Flores will also serve as senior associate dean for child health, the George E. Batchelor Endowed Chair in Child Health, and physician-in-chief at Holtz Children’s Hospital at UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
 
After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard College, Dr. Flores received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a residency in pediatrics at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale University School of Medicine.
 
He has served in leadership positions in pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and as distinguished chair of health policy research at the Medical Research Institute in Minneapolis and as a research affiliate at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.


Part 1                 

As one of the state’s leading academic medical centers, Tampa General Hospital is focused on providing the most complex care (tertiary and quaternary care) to patients not only from the Tampa Bay region but across Florida, the southeast United States and the southern hemisphere.
 
“Our ability to provide world-class advanced-level care across medical specialties places us in the top five in the state and in the top 50 in the country in several areas,” says John Couris, Tampa General Hospital president and CEO. “We are one of the leading organ transplant centers in the United States, ranking sixth in the country by volume, having performed more than 10,000 transplants, and offering the most advanced level of care for transplant patients.”
 
Couris adds that its work in the fields of cardiac care, heart surgery, and orthopedics are consistently recognized as the best in the state and are ranked best in the state of Florida by U.S. News & World Report.
 
“Our nationally designated comprehensive stroke center and 32-bed Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit are the largest on the west coast of Florida,” he says. “As home to the only Level I trauma center on the West Coast and with one of just five burn centers in Florida, we can care for not only Tampa Bay’s most critically injured and ill patients, but also patients across the entire state. Our five medical helicopters traversing the state allow us to transport patients from 23 surrounding counties and provide them with the advanced care they need as quickly as possible.”
 
Tampa General’s relationship with the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine sets them apart and has contributed to its reputation not only as pioneers in clinical care but in research and education, as well. In partnership with USF, there are more than 30 clinical trials that are currently active at TGH. As the primary teaching hospital and academic partner of USF, they now train more than 700 residents and fellows in 60 specialties each year—promoting and educating the future of world-class medical care here in Florida. USF’s medical faculty, as well as the region’s leading providers, admit and care for patients at Tampa General. USF’s physician scientists are working with Tampa General to develop cutting-edge treatments and medical breakthroughs.
 
Most significantly, since the outbreak of COVID-19, Tampa General, in collaboration with USF, has led the way in the care, containment and prevention of the pandemic.
 
“Within the last year we opened the Global Emerging Diseases Institute, which treats patients suffering from COVID-19 as well as other infectious diseases, and developed TPRO (TGH Prevention – Response – Outreach), a TGH program that continues to assist Florida businesses in opening safely to serve both its employees and its patrons,” adds Couris. “TGH, through TPRO, also partnered with the Florida Senate to ensure a safe return to in-person legislative sessions in 2020.”
 
Couris’ vision for serving the evolving health needs of the patients of the Tampa region as well as residents living in our footprint across the state – from Fort Myers to Palm Beach – centers around pivoting toward an overall system of care coordination.
 
“Our goal is to allow us to continue to improve quality, increase Floridians’ access to leading-edge care across all specialties, to lower costs, and to ensure the best possible outcomes for our patients,” he says. “And we continue to fulfill our strategic vision of becoming the safest and most innovative academic health system in America.”
 
He notes that their work is strengthened by a strategy of innovation across the hospital which allows them to support the research from our physician-scientists and to leverage technology to develop new models for better meeting patients’ health care needs. For example, in 2019 they launched TGH’s CareComm Center—an 8,000-square-foot, NASA-style, high-tech command center to manage patient flow and increase efficiencies across the hospital. CareComm was developed in partnership with GE Healthcare and allows the region to leverage artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and modeling to improve and better coordinate patient care. In the first 18 months, CareComm helped save more than 40 million dollars by reducing inefficiencies and dramatically improving the amount of time that care providers can spend with patients.
 
“Additionally, through our new innovation platform, TGH Innoventures, we are investing and supporting a wide array of research at Tampa General and USF, as well as through outside and emerging ventures—all of which will hopefully lead to new treatments and new modalities of service,” Couris says. “With all this work, our ultimate goal is to propel innovation to support our physicians and care teams and provide the best patient experience.”
 
One of the biggest challenges for Tampa General today is the challenge faced by all health care systems in the country: how to fund health care. Specifically, how to provide world-class care at a cost that allows providers to remain viable and that is affordable for employers and individuals.
 
“Everyone involved in the funding of health care—from providers, to employers, to insurance carriers, to legislatures – is working to find a solution,” says Couris. “The reality is that to make real and lasting change, we must redesign the whole model for how care is provided and paid for in our state and across the country. To that end, I continue to work with Florida officials in Tallahassee, health care leaders, and other stakeholders working toward real and substantive change.”