Critical Times

Robert Meade was named CEO of Doctors Hospital in Sarasota in 2005. He has been in hospital administration for more than 25 years. That includes seven years as CEO of Englewood Community Hospital, which, like Doctors, is owned by Nashville-based HCA Inc.

Meade worked in executive roles with Pasco Community Hospital and Brandon Regional Hospital before he joined Doctors. A 155-bed hospital, Doctors has more than 1,000 employees and cares for at least 50,000 patients a year.

Q: What are some goals Doctors Hospital has pursued to address the rapid changes in health care?

A: Over the last year we've added three new services. We added a 16-bed senior behavioral health center. We took one wing on the fourth floor, and it was a $2 million renovation. We felt there was a real need to take care of these patients that was missing in this community. We also acquired the latest technology da Vinci surgical robot. And we now have a percutaneous catheter intervention stent program (which uses stents to treat coronary arteries.) We had approval a year and a half ago from the state, but we didn't want to move ahead until we had a comfort level and had acquired top-level equipment. We spent $2 million on that, and have done about 14 cases.