Ashley Vertuno, FACHE, Chief Executive Officer at HCA Florida JFK North Hospital

Summary

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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast: Interview with Ashley Vertuno, CEO at HCA Florida JFK North Hospital

Date: August 18, 2025
Host: Laura Deardow, Becker's Healthcare
Guest: Ashley Vertuno, FACHE, CEO, HCA Florida JFK North Hospital

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Episode Overview

This episode features Ashley Vertuno, Chief Executive Officer at HCA Florida JFK North Hospital, who discusses her leadership journey, recent wins, and the hospital’s strategic focus areas. She highlights building high-performing teams, recent service line expansions, and the hospital’s cultural evolution. The conversation also covers workforce resilience, physician alignment, growth opportunities, and leadership essentials for the next five years.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ashley Vertuno’s Leadership Journey and Hospital Background [00:14–03:42]

• Personal Leadership Focus:

  • Ashley shares her passion for developing high-performing teams, drawing parallels from her athletic background as a soccer player.
  • Quote: "I've just been deeply passionate about building high performing teams. I started as a soccer player...really understanding the makeup of team dynamics." [00:38]

• Hospital’s Transformation:

  • HCA Florida JFK North has undergone a “powerful turnaround journey,” focusing on unified branding and expanding services post-2022.
  • Major service line expansions: vascular, interventional (including oncology), orthopedics, spine, women’s surgical services, and behavioral health.
  • Memorable Case: A couple simultaneously received life-saving care due to new women’s surgical and cardiac services, embodying the hospital’s mission.

• Recognition:

  • The hospital was awarded Healthgrades Top 100 Hospital for patient safety twice in a row.
  • Quote: “That’s a direct reflection of our people, our vision and our shared belief that excellence is a standard and not just a stretch goal.” [03:22]

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2. Top Strategic Issues: Workforce, Physicians, and Culture [04:02–05:50]

• Workforce Resilience:

  • Staff fatigue and generational changes in work expectations are key challenges.
  • Leadership focus: Create an environment that protects joy, fuels purpose, and maintains high standards.
  • Quote: “We need to be intentional about creating environments that protect the joy, fuel the purpose and still deliver the excellent, always outcomes that we expect for our patients.” [04:23]

• Physician Alignment:

  • Expansion of services requires strong alignment with physician partners to preserve the hospital's mission and meet community needs.

• Cultural Integration:

  • Emphasis on culture as a multiplier—ensuring that organizational strategy is matched by cultural strength.
  • Quote: “Peter Drucker says culture eats strategy for breakfast... Culture is the real multiplier in all this.” [05:21]

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3. Building and Sustaining Strong Culture [05:50–06:42]

• Actionable Steps:
  • Set a clear vision and goals.
  • Hold teams accountable while delivering with compassion.
  • Keep the patient at the center of all efforts.
  • Quote: “Setting a vision, creating that vision with direction...reminding ourselves that there is a patient at the other end of that metric.” [06:18]

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4. Opportunities for Future Growth [06:51–08:47]

• Specialization and Access:

  • HCA Florida JFK North is experiencing growth in women’s services, orthopedics, spine, and behavioral health.

• Graduate Medical Education:

  • Launch of a psychiatry residency program to build future physician pipelines, especially for mental health.

• Ambulatory & Specialized Services:

  • Expansion into ambulatory surgery centers and bridging wellness/performance initiatives from hospital to home.

• Consumer-Driven Healthcare:

  • Shift towards preventive care and understanding patients as healthcare consumers.
  • Quote: “Patients are thinking more like consumers these days, and healthcare leaders are having to adapt with that mindset.” [08:20]

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5. Leadership Essentials for the Next Five Years [09:23–10:36]

• Clarity, Courage, Consistency:

  • Leaders must communicate clear vision, challenge the status quo with courage, and show up consistently.
  • Quote: “Leaders really have to articulate where we're going. We have to stay brave enough to challenge the status quo and show up consistently.” [09:27]

• Personal Anchors:

  • Ashley’s approach draws from her faith, athletic discipline, and team orientation.
  • Quote: “Leadership is always a we and not a me.” [10:13]

• Cultural Magnetism as Key to Success:

  • Organizations that are both operationally sound and culturally magnetic will thrive.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Excellence:
  “Excellence is a standard and not just a stretch goal.” – Ashley Vertuno [03:35]
• On Workforce Needs:
  “We need to be intentional about creating environments that protect the joy, fuel the purpose and still deliver...outcomes.” – Ashley Vertuno [04:23]
• On Culture:
  “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” – Referencing Peter Drucker [05:21]
• On Team and Vision:
  “Setting a vision...reminding ourselves that there is a patient at the other end of that metric.” – Ashley Vertuno [06:18]
• On Future Leadership:
  “Leadership is always a we and not a me.” – Ashley Vertuno [10:13]

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Timestamps of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-------------|--------------------------------------------| | 00:14–03:42 | Ashley’s background, hospital’s journey, major wins, and impact stories | | 04:02–05:50 | Strategic focus: workforce, physician alignment, and culture | | 05:50–06:42 | How to build a strong, change-driving culture | | 06:51–08:47 | Opportunities for growth: specialization, education, and consumer-centric care | | 09:23–10:36 | What it will take to lead a thriving organization in the next five years |

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Summary

This episode presents Ashley Vertuno as a dynamic healthcare leader, focused on transformative team-building, disciplined execution, and a mission-driven approach to expanding care access. She emphasizes that excellence and culture are foundational to achieving sustainable growth and improved patient outcomes. Vertuno's forward-looking perspective highlights specialization, physician pipeline development, and consumer-driven healthcare as shaping the industry's future. Her leadership philosophy—rooted in clarity, courage, consistency, and team orientation—serves as a blueprint for thriving healthcare organizations.

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Transcript

[A]

This is Laura Deardow with the Beckers Healthcare podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by Ashley Fortuno, Chief Executive Officer at HCA Florida JFK North Hospital. Ashley, it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.

[B]

Thank you, Laura. I'm excited to be here.

[A]

Now I'm excited for our conversation because I know there's so much happening in healthcare and particularly, you know, looking at spotlighting some of the cool things you're doing at JFK north and how you're thinking about the future. But before we dive in, I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about yourself and the hospital. What are some of your biggest wins as success stories from your last year?

[B]

Sure. Well, you know, again, thank you for the introduction, Laura. Ashley Virtuno here, chief executive officer for HCA Florida JFK North Hospital. And I've been serving in this role almost five years here in the West Palm beach community, but been in healthcare leadership for over 15 years. You know, a little bit about me is I've just been deeply passionate about building high performing teams. I started as a soccer player, so an athlete, growing up and really understanding the makeup of team dynamics and through that have over the years built and continue to build high performing teams, growing services that meet our physicians vision, which I'm passionate about. You know, we can't do what we do without our physician partners and then transforming organizations into the purpose driven powerhouses that we are today. With that, you know a little bit about JFK North. You know, we've been on a powerful turnaround journey here, building our reputation with a unified brand. We launched in 2022 HCA Florida across the entire state and that really helped to be a launch pad for us here at JFK North. It allowed us to really focus on expanding our services to meet our community. So really that entailed growing our vascular service line, our interventional programs inclusive of oncology work as well as orthopedics and spine. One of the highlights I will highlight that happened in last year is our women's surgical services and gyn and GYN oncology and then expanding our behavioral health outpatient footprint inclusive of adding psychiatry residents to our facility. At the end of the day, the biggest success story I can really highlight is changing our patient lives and that is through our launch of our women's surgical service. We identified someone that had a large ovarian cancer that came in through our emergency room and on the onset of having surgical intervention, her husband was here and also had a form of cardiac Arrhythmia, that happened and that was noticed by our care team. And so in one episode of care, treating one patient that needed women's services, we also at the same time treated her husband. And that's due to the services that we've been able to provide and expand here at JFK North. And so, you know, really having the opportunity to change people's lives from where they came into our ER to leaving here in a better state is what our mission is. And that is a huge win for us. And then as well as I'm proud of the culture we've built in the last year we earned a health grades top 100 hospital distinctions on patient safety, not just once, but for two consecutive years. And so that's a direct reflection of our people, our vision and our shared belief that excellence is a standard and not just a stretch goal.

[A]

I love that. What a great nugget of just looking at how you can be excellent, how you can build those high performing teams and really seeing the challenges of today as opportunities, opportunities to get even better. That's fantastic. Now what are some of the top two to three issues that you're focused on right now? What's top of mind for you right now?

[B]

I am laser focused on three things. Workforce resilience, physician alignment, and then cultural integration. So let me break that down a little bit more. So first in the workforce, we're seeing healthcare teams that are in a sense of tiredness and wanting to look at different ways to operate from different schedules and also new ways that are brought in through generational changes as well. And so as leaders, we need to be intentional about creating environments that protect the joy, fuel the purpose and still deliver the excellent, always outcomes that we expect for our patients. So that is, that's one that we're working on right now and leaning in on that. So understanding what our care team's passions are and what their career aspirations are and how we can help deliver on that. The second is in that physician alignment. So we're expanding our service lines. So aligning our physicians around growth while preserving our mission is critical. Looking at what does the community entail from an access point point, what services are needed and making sure that we have our physician partners that are on board to grow with us at our organization. And third, culture, we all know Peter Drucker says culture eats strategy for breakfast. So with that you can have the best strategy on paper. But if culture doesn't match, execution is always going to fall short. And so culture is the real multiplier in all this. And so that's why I would say those are the three areas of focus that we are leaning into here at our facility.

[A]

I love that. And I think it truly is a testament to how well you're able to build your teams and achieve the really big goals that you're trying to achieve. And I think, especially when you look at the culture side of it, how do you build a culture that really is strong in something that can drive change and positive transformation versus one that is going to hold you back?

[B]

It starts with your team. I mean, setting. Setting a vision, creating that vision with direction and having clear goals that are attainable, and then having the team go out and execute on it by holding them accountable, but delivering on compassion and ultimately reminding ourselves that there is a patient at the other end of that metric.

[A]

That's such a good point. Thank you for clarifying that and digging a bit deeper there. Now, where are some of the big opportunities for growth in the next few years for us?

[B]

And I'd say really across all healthcare, growth is coming through specialization and access. We're seeing strong momentum in women's services, orthopedic spine and behavioral health here at our facility. So we're also looking at our physician programs. So how are we investing in graduate medical education in the community to build that future physician pipeline? As I mentioned early on, one of the moments that we presented about a year and a half ago, two years ago, we're actually in year two, is we launched a psychiatry residency program here at JFK North. And that's not just an investment in our hospital, that's an investment in future pipeline for mental health in our region. And so very proud of that. And I think you're going to see more of that is really focal points and specialization in not only hospitals, but also in different access points throughout. So whether it's a, you know, it's an ambulatory surgery center that's focused on orthopedics and spine or specialized services in that stent, but really bridging the gap of investment with our physician and our nursing workforce. So I think those are key areas. And then, I mean, that's from a hospital. And then personally, I also see a big opportunity in bridging wellness and performance both from hospitals to home. You know, patients are thinking more like consumers these days, and healthcare leaders are having to adapt with that mindset. And so when you think of access to care, how do we actually bridge that gap from a lot of preventative maintenance or even wellness programs that are out there that are doing A lot of the preventative work in the healthcare.

[A]

Space that's really fascinating to hear about. And certainly looking ahead, having that ability to create the preventative medicine, think about wellness for the community as well as the behavioral health side of things. I know that'll make a big difference in how the community grows and develops and becomes healthier. Now, in considering all of these changes, we've talked about looking at what it takes for a workforce to really reach its full potential and then the different ways that just medicine healthcare delivery is changing in general. What will it take to lead a thriving organization over the next five years?

[B]

I think it's pretty simple. It's going to take clarity, courage and consistency. Leaders really have to articulate where we're going. We have to stay brave enough to challenge the status quo and show up consistently. And what I mean by showing up consistently for yourself, really showing up for yourself, for your team, for their community, and then for themselves. So thinking about how you show up every day really does translate into your organization's well being and it really does take a hold into your culture and into your environment. And so that's really important. For me, it also means staying grounded in purpose. My faith keeps me centered. My athletic background reminds me that performance is earned daily. And my team here reminds me that leadership is always a we and not a me. And I think the next five years will reward those who lead with vision and action and those who can build organizations that are not only operationally sound but culturally magnetic are going to consistently thrive in the coming years.

[A]

I love that. Ashley, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. This has been such an inspiring conversation and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.

[B]

Laura, thank you for having me. And I appreciate Beckers for allowing me to spend some time this morning and sharing some words of advice and wisdom.

[A]

Absolutely. And we're looking forward to having you speak at our CEO CFO Roundtable in November. I think it'll just be such a fun time and space to connect and continue to dig deep into some of these themes that we've been talking about today as well.

[B]

I can't wait. Looking forward to it.