Podcast Summary: Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

Guest: Melissa Golombek, EVP and Chief Operating Officer, Tampa General Hospital
Host: Scott King (Becker’s Healthcare)
Date: September 15, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode features an insightful conversation between Scott King and Melissa Golombek, EVP and COO at Tampa General Hospital. The discussion explores the evolving role of a COO in healthcare, the unique challenges and strategic directions at Tampa General, notable accomplishments in the past year, proactive operational planning, team engagement, and emergency preparedness specific to Florida’s hurricane season. Melissa brings a transparent, servant-leader perspective to healthcare operations, emphasizing forward-thinking, teamwork, and patient-centered care.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Melissa’s Background and Role at Tampa General

• Melissa has been with Tampa General for six years and assumed the COO role seven months ago (00:43).
• Nurse by training; holds two master's degrees and a doctorate, with 15+ years' executive experience (00:46).
• Tampa General is the only academic health system in its region and is affiliated with the University of South Florida (01:12).
• Her officer role focuses on strategic operational growth, ensuring seamless patient care while managing complex behind-the-scenes operations.
  • Quote: “How we’re keeping the train on the track and making sure that... our patients feel as though it’s seamless and don’t know all of the maneuvering areas in the background that really lead to their world class care.” (01:35)

2. The Strategic Focus of the Modern COO

• Previously, COOs were “firefighters,” reacting to daily challenges (03:37).
• Melissa positions her role as more proactive and strategic, with the goal of smoothing operational challenges before they become crises:
  • “For me, it’s really about building within my team, being very forward focused... so that we can minimize or avoid some of those fires that come up through the day.” (03:49)
• Focus on long-term planning (3-5 years) to manage headwinds like capacity, space, throughput, and care protocols.

3. Vital Accomplishments at Tampa General

• Team Member First Culture: Tampa General prioritizes staff wellbeing, which translates into high-quality patient care (05:15).
  • Turnover rates are well below national academic health system benchmarks.
  • Team member engagement is in the 92nd percentile—“unheard of” at their size (05:45).
• Strategic Partnerships & Care Coordination:
  • Partnership with Palantir to develop software and systems enhancing care coordination across patient’s entire healthcare journey (06:34).
  • Such partnerships “have been really a game changer... and it has changed how we make decisions from the operational lens.” (07:09)

4. Operational Goals for 2025 and Progress

• Key operational pillars: quality, finance, strategy, capacity.
• Emphasis on being proactive in serving patients at scale, ensuring right care at the right location, and integrating all levels of staff into goal execution (07:33).
  • “We have high volumes of patients…we have the masses of growth and how do we do the right care, the right location…” (08:02)
• Melissa is impressed and proud of the team’s execution, especially amid broader industry challenges (08:41).

5. Anticipating and Managing Operational Headwinds

• In Florida, hurricane season is always a prime concern (09:23).
  • “Once you get right to where you’re supposed to be, you’re preparing for the next. And so that right now is of course top of mind for us.” (09:45)
• The hospital employs a dedicated emergency response team and “aquafence” system to protect facilities.
  • “Our emergency response team is a well oiled machine... making sure that we have the right resources, the right food, the right protection for our team members when we're in here for storms.” (10:36)

6. Evolution of the COO Role in Healthcare

• The COO role has shifted from a broad, catch-all focus to a targeted, strategic partnership function (11:42).
  • Five years ago, COOs had an “undefined scope.” Now, they have clear stakeholder alignment and are core to strategy and growth (11:47).
  • “Operations being at the table from a strategy build... How is this going to impact operations so we don’t bottleneck?” (12:19)

7. Melissa’s Leadership Evolution

• Melissa describes her style as “servant to my team.”
  • “How I’ve evolved is really based on the people that I have led and what their talents are... being able to mentor the team to think differently.” (13:10)
  • COO roles allow broad influence across teams and situations, a responsibility she views as an honor (14:20).

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Strategic Operations
  • “My job is to make that easy for them, it is to remove barriers so that the operators can do the work that they need to do.” (02:49, Melissa Golombek)
• On Team Member Engagement
  • “We put our team members first. We care for our team members to the highest level and that leads to our team members caring for our patients at the highest level with the highest quality.” (05:20, Melissa Golombek)
• On Partnerships and Technology
  • “We really have partnered with Palantir... developing softwares and systems that allow us to really enhance the care coordination across the continuum.” (06:37, Melissa Golombek)
• On Proactive Planning
  • “We can be proactive in our thinking from an operations standpoint so that we can minimize or avoid some of those fires that come up through the day.” (03:51, Melissa Golombek)
• On Evolution of COO Role
  • “The role now is a more strategic approach. It is: this is what I’m focused on. These are my key stakeholders who partner with me to get our collective outcome or goal.” (11:53, Melissa Golombek)
• On Leadership Growth
  • “You have such a wonderful opportunity to be able to serve and help people think through or get to their outcome. And that is a luxury that not a lot of leadership positions get.” (14:06, Melissa Golombek)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:43 – Melissa’s background and intro to COO role
• 02:17 – Core responsibilities of the COO
• 03:37 – Evolving from reactive “firefighting” to proactive strategy
• 05:06 – Biggest accomplishments of the past year (staff focus, engagement, partnerships)
• 07:33 – 2025 goals and team integration into operational strategy
• 09:23 – Preparing for natural disasters (hurricane season in Florida)
• 11:42 – How the COO role is changing in healthcare
• 13:02 – Melissa’s development as a leader

This insightful episode provides a window into the challenges and future-focused strategies shaping academic health system operations today, as told by one of the sector’s servant leaders.