Will Broward hospitals merge? Here’s what the CEO said about the future of care

The leader of Broward’s two public health systems has big plans for the future of care, with over a dozen new facilities expected to open across the county in the next few years.

Shane Strum, the CEO of Broward Health and interim CEO of Memorial Healthcare System, isn’t ready to use the word “merger” just yet. But he wants to see more “collaboration” between the two health systems to bring better care closer to home. He’s already testing how much the sister systems can work together.

“We will work together to provide the best services in your backyard and at your hospital so you never have to leave the county again,” Strum told the Miami Herald.

He describes the collab as a relationship. First, the two health systems were “dating.” The initial results from the partnership were positive, so the health systems are now “engaged.”

“And it’s really been a great engagement, so you know we’re looking at, wouldn’t it be great if we could get married [and merge]? So the question is when and how,” Strum said.

The public hospitals are also planning major expansions, including in pockets of Broward where residents don’t have nearby access to care, as they prepare for a potential turf war with Baptist Health South Florida and other health systems that are starting to expand into the county. Strum also wants to create the largest pediatric health system in the region, with doctors from Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and Nicklaus Children’s Health System, two of the top pediatric hospitals in the country.

Strum laid out his vision in a nearly three-hour exclusive interview with the Herald. Here are the highlights.

Will Broward Health and Memorial merge?

When asked, Strum indicated he would be open to merging the two safety-net hospitals, which together have over 28,000 employees, if Florida’s Legislature would back the idea.

“I think if it’s the right thing to do, I would love to do it,” he said.

The CEO is already exploring the boundaries of what the sister systems can legally do together without officially merging, an action only Florida lawmakers, with the support of the governor, have the power to do. But lawmakers don’t seem to have much of an appetite for an official merger, at least for now.

A proposal that would have brought the two health systems under unified control failed to gain traction in Tallahassee again for the second consecutive year. The most recent version of the proposal, which died before the legislative session began, would have expanded the Broward hospital districts’ collaboration powers and granted them state action immunity to shield them “from antitrust liability even if their arrangements produced anticompetitive effects,” according to Florida Politics.

Strum argues the failed proposal was not about merging the two systems, as was largely reported, but about giving the hospital districts state action immunity with clearer guidelines on what they can and cannot do together.

“I don’t want any silos. I’m very inclusive,” Strum said. “I think if you want to grow and do good things, bring everybody to the table. Give everybody a chance. I want creativity and innovation to rise.”

What changes could Memorial and Broward Health patients expect?

Strum said Florida already gives the health networks the ability to work together, up to a certain extent, as long as the individual hospital CEOs are willing. He expects the collaboration will help improve not just access to care, but also the quality of available care to all patients. The public health systems provide care to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay or their insurance or immigration status.

Some of the recent changes:

A unified call center was established by the hospitals to help direct primary and maternity care patients in underserved areas to Memorial or Broward Health facilities, depending on insurance, the type of care needed and which hospital is nearest to home.Memorial typically provides care for southern Broward, with Broward Health serving northern Broward.
Some employees are now working for both health systems to expand available treatment options, a notion Strum describes as a “cross-pollination” that will let Memorial and Broward Health doctors work together for the first time and give patients the ability to be seen by experts from both systems without traveling far from home. Dr. Christopher DeMassi, the chief of Memorial’s Neuroscience Institute, for example, is now also chief of Broward Health’s neuroscience team. Dr. Atif Hussein, chief of Memorial Cancer Institute, will also oversee Broward Health’s oncology services.
Broward Health’s transplant patients are now sent to Memorial’s renowned transplant institute for organ transplantation.
The two hospitals, using University of Florida research, have launched a data-driven initiative that analyzes health needs and other information, such as food insecurity, at a city-block level to identify health deserts and to support efforts to improve access to primary and maternity care and reduce food insecurity. The initiative, part of Broward Health and Memorial’s “Better Together” partnership, has drawn over 100 patients to both health systems every month, according to Strum.
The CEO pointed out that the health systems are trying to expand maternity services at a time when many providers across the country, including in South Florida, have cut maternity services, including closing labor and delivery units, due to costly operating expenses and low reimbursement rates. He said Broward Health, for example, gave its maternity ward a $5 million facelift earlier this year. The labor and delivery unit at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood recently received a similar renovation.

And the CEO says more collaborations are on the horizon, including for cancer care and research.

While many patients seek care at Memorial’s Cancer Institute, Strum said the data shows that nearly a third of all cancer patients eventually leave Broward to receive treatment, often driving to neighboring Miami-Dade to receive care at Baptist Health’s Herbert Wertheim Cancer Institute, formerly known as the Miami Cancer Institute, or at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is part of the University of Miami Health System and the only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center in South Florida.

Experts from the renowned Moffitt Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Tampa, have long worked at Memorial. Now, Strum said talks are in the works to see if Moffitt experts will also come to Broward Health.

Broward Health and Memorial are expanding

Part of Strum’s vision involves renovations and expansions. Like other South Florida health systems, Broward Health and Memorial are searching for pockets in the county that don’t have much access to care.

Broward Health, for example, recently partnered with Community Care Plan, an insurance plan that is co-owned by Broward Health and Memorial, to open a maternity care clinic with OB-GYNs in a Lauderdale Lakes strip mall to bring maternity care to surrounding neighborhoods. It also partnered with Lyft and Uber to provide free transportation to and from the clinic for patients. The result? Over 2,000 patients within a year, Strum said.

The two hospitals have also partnered at Memorial Primary Care in Plantation to provide expectant mothers with access to doctors from Memorial and Broward Health.

For Strum, the efforts are also a way to let the community know that “Broward Health is back and that we’re your trusted hospital.”

For patients, the expansion of health services into neighborhoods means it’s a lot easier to find care close to home. For health systems, the push into the suburbs is also a chance to secure lifelong patients, reduce overcrowding at main locations and prepare for the future.

Hospitals aren’t just competing for patients, but also for nurses and doctors during a nationwide shortage predicted to get worse by 2030, when the youngest Baby Boomers hit 65. Experts worry there won’t be enough healthcare providers to meet the needs of an aging population.

Strum explained that the sister health systems want to continue growing their graduate medical education programs and have launched a new initiative for oncology residents and fellows that will give them the opportunity to work at both Memorial and Broward Health hospitals as part of their training. Data shows residents have a higher chance of staying in the community where they do their residency program.

The strategy to attract patients, along with more healthcare workers, has even lured Memorial and other health giants across county borders. Memorial, for example, opened a primary care center a few years ago in Northwest Miami-Dade, near Hialeah and Miami Lakes, after seeing a big need for preventive and specialty care in an area that is home to more than 500,000 people. And Baptist Health South Florida, the largest not-for-profit health system in the region, is planning to open its first Broward hospital in Sunrise in 2029.

Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines earlier this year also opened a new 20,000-square foot facility to expand access to advanced heart and vascular care in western Broward.

“The biggest issue in Broward County is access,” said Strum.

Freestanding ERs, in particular, have begun to pop up all over South Florida from Mount Sinai Medical Center, Baptist and HCA Florida. Memorial and Broward Health have opened several freestanding ERs across Broward this year too, including in Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Sunrise and Lighthouse Point.

And the two public health systems have over a dozen expansion projects already in the works for the coming years, including more freestanding emergency rooms, a new surgical tower on the campus of Memorial Regional Hospital, and a new eight-story medical office building that will rise across the street from the ER at Broward Health’s flagship Fort Lauderdale hospital.

People want to go to the best hospital and the best doctors for care “so for us to be able to compete, we have to continue to invest in our organizations,” Strum said.

A look at some of the projects

Memorial Regional Hospital Surgical and Bed Tower: A new surgical tower with 21 operating rooms and 150 beds will be built on the Hollywood campus of Memorial Regional Hospital. Construction for the $670 million tower is set to begin in 2029, with the tower expected to open in 2031.

Broward Health Fort Lauderdale’s new medical office building: Strum said the eight-story building, the first to rise on the hospital’s campus in 40 years, will be a one-stop shop of doctors from primary and specialty care, including neurology, cardiology, oncology, obstetrics and gynecology, and more. The building will have an entire floor dedicated to pediatric care by doctors with Nicklaus Children’s Health System, part of a recent partnership Broward Health made with the pediatric provider. The building, expected to open in 2027, will have 129 exam rooms, with the capability to expand to as many as 237. Broward Health is also planning to pair it with a seven-story 300,000-square-foot parking garage. The price tag: $199.3 million.

Freestanding ERs: Memorial plans to open a $30 million freestanding ER in Hollywood. The 15,115-square-foot ER is expected to open in 2028. Broward Health plans to open a $26 million freestanding ER at Holiday Park in downtown Fort Lauderdale, adjacent to the upcoming YMCA Family Center, in 2027.

The future of pediatric care in Broward

Strum said he doesn’t want to just see collaboration between Broward Health and Memorial. He wants to see doctors from Broward Health working alongside doctors from Nicklaus Children’s Health System, Broward Health’s new pediatric provider, and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, part of Memorial’s network.

A meeting between physician leaders from Broward Health, Memorial, Joe DiMaggio and Nicklaus Children’s is set to take place this month to discuss what the future of pediatric and adult care should look like, Strum said.

Joe DiMaggio is the children’s hospital of Memorial’s network and is located on a shared campus with Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood. Nicklaus Children’s has taken over the former pediatric hospital on Broward Health’s Fort Lauderdale campus as part of a new partnership.

That means patients who go to Broward Health’s Fort Lauderdale location for care will actually be seen by Nicklaus Children’s doctors at the new Nicklaus hospital on campus. Broward Health pediatricians are still there, too, but are now officially Nicklaus employees.

It’s like a hospital within a hospital, according to Strum.

The partnership has given Broward Health the ability to provide more advanced pediatric care for Broward families closer to home, including new procedures the hospital wasn’t equipped to handle before, according to Strum.

Now, Strum wants to take it a step further. He wants to bring together Memorial, Broward Health and Nicklaus pediatric specialists to create the largest pediatric health networkin Florida. Patients would have access to the latest treatments for all types of care and would not have to be transferred to other hospitals. Instead, the specialists would be able to treat them close to home.

“For the patient, what I would tell them is you’re going to get better, higher quality care without ever having to leave Broward County,” said Strum.

What’s going on with the Broward Health, Memorial and Florida Blue dispute?

It’s been over a year since Broward Health went out-of-network with Florida Blue, the largest insurer in the state, due to ongoing contract disputes related to reimbursement rates. It’s been 11 months since Memorial doctors left the network, too. And it’s been about four months since Broward Health took Florida Blue to court, accusing it of refusing to pay or underpaying it for providing out-of-network emergency care and services.

Strum, who said he can only talk about the ongoing negotiations as the CEO of Broward Health, not Memorial, said he believes a deal that would bring the hospitals back in-network could be made soon now that Florida Blue is under new leadership.

When asked what he would tell Florida Blue members, Strum said: “I would tell them the light at the end of the tunnel is here.”