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Spring Hill Regional gains new leadership

The hospital's new CEO has about 20 years of health care administration experience.

By CHANDRA BROADWATER
Published July 12, 2006

SPRING HILL - Spring Hill Regional Hospital has a new chief executive officer.

Last week, Health Management Associates named Jason Roeback as the new head of the 124-bed hospital on Quality Drive in Spring Hill. The announcement was made public Tuesday.

The 41-year-old father of five has worked as chief operating officer under Brooksville Regional CEO Tom Barb for the last year. Before that, he worked in the same position at Spring Hill Regional.

Brooksville Regional and Spring Hill Regional are operated by HMA, which is based in Naples.

Roeback replaces outgoing CEO Jim Beatty, who took a promotion within the HMA company and is now working at Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in Haines City. Beatty worked as the hospital's CEO for six years.

The transition has been under way for the past month, when Beatty's promotion was announced, Barb said. Roeback's new job was made official July 1.

The new chief has nearly 20 years of health care administration experience. He received an undergraduate degree in health administration from the University of Kentucky, and a master's of health administration from Pennsylvania State University.

Roeback also served as a fiscal and administrative officer in the U.S. Navy while at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Jacksonville.

"He's an excellent individual and great administrator," Barb said. "I'm very pleased that he also had the opportunity to stay in the community. We work closely with Spring Hill (Regional) and it's nice to have someone you know you can work well with over there."

For the last two weeks, Roeback said, he has spent most of his time getting reacquainted with the staff at Spring Hill Regional. He also has been busy laying out future priorities.

One of those includes relocating his family. While working in Hernando County, the Pennsylvania native has been living separately from his wife, Jennifer, and their children, who are in Vero Beach.

As far as the hospital goes, Roeback said he hopes to continue Spring Hill Regional's long history of outstanding care.

"Right now we're focusing on what we do best, which is provide quality care," he said. "Statistically, we have one of the busiest emergency rooms in the county. We're also the only hospital that deliveries babies."

In the next few weeks, a multimillion-dollar expansion of operating rooms and the addition of a new recovery room also will begin at the hospital. Recently, most of the attention has gone to Spring Hill's sister hospital, Brooksville Regional, he said.

The new 186,000-square-foot, $30-million facility was built nearly a year ago. It is located west of Brooksville on Cortez Boulevard.

"I want to keep the momentum going here at Spring Hill Regional," Roeback said. "We need to recapitalize and invest here, like we are doing with the operating rooms, and to continue to assure that physicians and surgeons continue to come here so patients can get the care that they deserve."

[Last modified July 11, 2006, 23:47:18]