Kelly Enriquez, former CEO of Sebastian River Medical Center, has been hired as Lawnwood Regional Medical Center’s new chief operating officer.
Enriquez led the Sebastian hospital from March 2014 until last October, when she was asked to resign, a year and a half after Steward Health acquired Sebastian River and two others hospitals in Brevard County.
At the time, Steward’s regional president, Daniel Knell, declined to further characterize the departure. Enriquez was replaced by Kyle Sanders, who remains as Sebastian River’s CEO today.
According to multiple sources, Sanders has overseen a spate of significant forced departures in the last few months, with more than a half-dozen leadership positions vacated in critical areas. Last week alone, seven were let go, including both upper- and lower-level staff, and more layoffs were rumored to be coming.
The sources, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, said that the departures have saddled remaining staff with additional responsibilities.
A Steward spokeswoman, Anja Mayr, said the layoffs resulted from a recent decision “to consolidate staffing levels across certain departments.”
Mayr added, “Sebastian River Medical Center is currently recruiting medical professionals and support staff for more than 60 job openings. Moving forward, Sebastian will continue its tradition of providing high-quality, exceptional care to the community.”
The departures come amid months of talk that the Sebastian hospital may be struggling to keep patients coming after the takeover of its main competitor to the south, Indian River Medical Center, by the Cleveland Clinic.
Last week, Cleveland Clinic Indian River CEO Dr. Greg Rosencrance said Indian River’s inpatient volumes had risen 10 percent from January to June compared to the same timeframe last year.
Lawnwood also competes for Indian River County’s patient pool, as a Level II trauma center with advanced heart and stroke care.
The Fort Pierce medical center’s emergency department is the only one in the area equipped for pediatric patients. Lawnwood has 380 beds. Indian River has 332, including the Behavioral Health Center. Sebastian River has 154, including 33 in its transitional care unit.
Regardless of what happens at Sebastian River Medical Center, Enriquez’s job at Lawnwood is about to get bigger, as she and CEO Eric Goldman implement a just-announced $100 million expansion and renovation that will add 32 beds and three operating rooms to the medical surgical unit and triple the size of spaces for recovery and pre-op.
This month, the Fort Pierce hospital added a new adolescent behavioral health program, and by fall, it expects to complete the freestanding emergency department being constructed on South U.S. 1 in Vero Beach. That 12-bed E.D. will have a trauma bay, pediatric rooms and a psych safe room.
A spokeswoman for Lawnwood said its parent company, HCA, does not release information on incoming C-suite executives apart from CEOs, and would not provide even a start date for Enriquez.
