Mr. Verinder oversees Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. Founded in 1925, it serves as the county’s safety net, caring for the majority of the county’s uninsured and Medicaid residents and remaining the only hospital in the county still providing inpatient obstetrics, neonatal intensive care, pediatrics and psychiatric and behavioral health care for patients of all ages. After serving as CFO and then COO, Mr. Verinder became CEO and has since led the most significant expansion in its century of service, transforming it from a single-hospital enterprise into a regional referral center, trauma center and teaching hospital through more than $2 billion in capital projects. He established Sarasota County’s first and only trauma center, partnered with Florida State University College of Medicine to create a graduate medical education program, and opened SMH-Venice (Fla.), a 212-bed hospital that launched in the midst of the pandemic. Mr. Verinder also created the Brian D. Jellison Cancer Institute, replaced an aging behavioral health hospital with the Cornell Behavioral Health Pavilion, and opened the Kolschowsky Research and Education Institute to bring the system’s research and graduate medical education programs together. Under his leadership, SMH has earned a CMS 5-star quality rating in every reporting period since the program began in 2016, making it the only Florida hospital to do so, along with consecutive “A” Leapfrog safety grades and Magnet nursing recognition five times over 20 years. He has served as past chairman of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida and has been named to Florida Trend‘s “Florida’s 500 Most Influential Business Leaders” list.
