- June 29, 2026
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Lakewood Ranch Medical Center has named healthcare executive Jason Madsen CEO.
The hospital's parent company, suburban Philadelphia hospital and health services giant United Health Services, announced the hiring. Madsen replaces Rob Anderson, who resigned in March after a year in the role. Like Madsen, Anderson had been working in Texas (El Paso) prior to Lakewood Ranch.
Anderson had been hired in April 2025 to replace longtime LWRMC leader Andy Guz, who UHS had promoted to oversee Manatee Memorial Hospital in downtown Bradenton. After the departures of both Anderson and Guz, UHS named hospital COO Philip Reber interim CEO.
"From a professional standpoint, this is a good opportunity to come into an organization that has a strong foundation and reputation for quality of service," Madsen says in an interview with the East County Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer, while driving east through Texas from his home in Texoma, north of Fort Worth. "I have been with Universal Health Services for a decade and I've always looked at Lakewood Ranch Medical Center as a hospital that achieves the high marks.
"This is one of the things you embrace in your career."
Madsen had been serving as Interim CEO and COO of Texoma Medical Center, a 414-bed hospital. A UHS release says "he helped lead significant improvements in quality, patient experience, physician alignment, operational performance and strategic growth initiatives," at Texoma.
"From a personal aspect, I am coming to a great community to bring my wife (MaChel) and my two step-children (15-year-old Garrett and 18-year-old Hannah). It aligns with what we enjoy doing. We lived in Arizona and we don't mind the heat, so this is right up our alley. We want to establish roots here, and we've all heard about this area. We know this is a beautiful community."
Madsen comes to LWRMC just after a significant milestone: its new $120 million, five-story tower opened in March; the expansion gave the hospital 180 beds, up 50% from its previous bed count of 120. The expansion was added to serve Lakewood Ranch's rapidly growing community. It includes a shell space in the tower where another 60 patient beds can be added in the future.
Madsen, 47, says the new tower was a huge positive in evaluating the job offer.
"It is one of the greatest things from an appeal standpoint," he says. "I value the ability to grow. When I see the overall capital investment made (by UHS), it tells me there is a significant investment in this facility. There is a pathway of support that I can build upon.
"And UHS does allow autonomy. It allows healthcare to be managed at a local level, to understand the needs of a community."
He already has met with Reber and other executives to discuss those community needs. He has been impressed with that group.
He says part of understanding community needs will be joining local organizations that will enhance his community engagement.
"It's all about listening, communicating and hearing," he says.
Madsen will take a similar philosophy to working with his staff.
"My goal is to come in and build relationships, and trust," he says. "I will meet with the stakeholders, medical staff, doctors and focus on making sure they are well taken care of. I want them to be excited to come to work."
Healthcare is a second career for Madsen, who for 10 years did the financials for a family-run, construction business in St. George, Utah.
"I became an EMT as a hobby," he says. "But I found extra fulfillment there, and lo and behold, I found a whole career."
He started volunteering at Intermountain Health Care in St. George to see how hospitals were run. He went back to school and eventually landed with UHS.
