As Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital set out to ready a new five-year strategic plan, adjusting organizational structure was among the focuses. The goal was a new structure at the highest level to better represent the growth the system has experienced in recent years, John Couris, Tampa General president and CEO, told Becker's.
Tampa General is one of the largest hospitals in Florida with 1,040 beds. From 2017 to 2023, the organization grew from 17 locations to more than 150 and from one hospital to six.
"When we were building the new plan, and we were reflecting on the last five years and we were thinking about the next five years, we realized that, obviously, we're a very different system," Mr. Couris said. "We're a very different organization today than we were five years ago."
Part of the new strategic plan includes the acquisition of Bravera Health facilities — the 120-bed Bravera Health Brooksville, 128-bed Bravera Health Seven Rivers in Crystal River and 124-bed Bravera Health Spring Hill and their associated assets — from Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems.
With this acquisition and completing a new strategic plan, Tampa General realized it needed an organizational structure to reflect its larger size, Mr. Couris said.
This resulted in appointing executives to new titles and roles as the organization.
Tampa General announced the changes in a news release shared with Becker's on Oct. 12.
Steve Short was named executive vice president and market president of TGH North, including the Bravera Health facilities Tampa General acquired. He previously served as senior vice president of Tampa General's provider network operations and will relocate near Brooksville to oversee acquisition and integration of the new facilities, which will officially incorporate Dec. 1.
The two former CEOs of the local hospitals will become senior vice presidents of the system and presidents of their hospitals.
Eight executives will assume new titles and reporting structures, with responsibilities broadening to extend across the organization, including all TGH North facilities, and nine other executives will retain their titles but have broadened responsibilities.
"The way I would describe this is the last five years was all about foundational work," said Mr. Couris. "The next five years and beyond is all about transformational work. So we're shifting from the foundational activity to the transformational activity, and we need an organizational structure and a leadership team that reflects that journey. That's why we made the changes."
While hospitals and health systems continue to navigate financial and workforce challenges, the new organizational structure "is all about having a growth mindset, and continuing to adjust the organization so we could continue to grow and expand," he added.
In discussing the organizational changes and strategic planning process, Mr. Couris also pointed to disruption in healthcare as a core issue.
"When you look at the challenges that healthcare is confronted with — whether it's staffing issues, supply chain issues, whether it's pressures on the reimbursement side, whether it's a shift from the inpatient to the outpatient [side] — if you look at all of those headwinds, we as an industry need to get comfortable with innovating and disrupting ourselves," he said.
"We need to get comfortable with failing fast, learning from those failures, picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and then continuing moving forward. We have historically struggled doing those kinds of activities in our industry. We have to get more comfortable with disrupting ourselves … [and] get more comfortable with collaborating with venture capital, with private equity, with entrepreneurs."
Regarding the organizational change specifically, Mr. Couris said Tampa General could have "maintained the same structure we had, but we challenged ourselves to think differently and to put a structure together that reflects where we're going as an institution as we continue to transform ourselves."