Longtime Doctors Hospital CEO retires, new leader named

After nearly two decades, HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital CEO Robert Meade is retiring, and his successor has been named.

Meade has been at the helm of the hospital since 2005 and has worked for HCA Healthcare for 41 years, according to a statement from HCA Florida Healthcare.

Photo by Rick Benitez Photography

“It has been my sincere privilege to serve as CEO of Sarasota Doctors Hospital for nearly two decades,” Meade says in the statement.

During Meade’s tenure, the hospital earned numerous accolades and added a graduate medical education program in internal medicine, the statement says. Over the past 20 years, the hospital has also developed a robotics and surgery program, expanded its operating room and emergency room, added mental health and cardiac catheterization programs, opened HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors North Emergency in Lakewood Ranch and constructed a second emergency room in Venice that is opening in spring 2025.

“Most of all, I am so proud of the culture we have created together, knowing the team here will continue their unwavering commitment to providing our community and our patients with compassionate, high quality health care services,” Meade says.

Photo by Rick Benitez Photography

Joe Rudisill, the former CEO of HCA Florida Englewood Hospital, is being promoted to CEO of HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital. Rudisill has more than 17 years of leadership experience in health care, including being the CEO of HCA Florida Englewood Hospital since September 2023.

Rudisill has a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master of health administration from Virginia Commonwealth University.