Florida Hospital System (see more articles like this)

Lars Houmann was appointed by Adventist Health System’s Board of Directors to serve as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Florida Hospital, the nation’s largest Medicare provider, as well as the Florida Division which includes Adventist Health System’s seventeen hospitals in Florida.  As President of Florida Hospital, Houmann succeeds Don Jernigan who was recently appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Adventist Health System. Houmann’s transition to president/CEO is effective immediately.  

“I am humbled and invigorated by the honor to lead the Florida Hospital team. My commitment is that this team of more than 15,000 employees will continue to extend Christ’s healing ministry to the millions of people whose lives we touch every year.” Houmann adds, “This is particularly challenging in a year when Florida Hospital has embarked on one of the largest expansion projects in our history.” 

For the past five years, Houmann has served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Florida Hospital, a 1,785 bed, seven hospital system serving the Orlando metropolitan area.  He has been with Florida Hospital since 1993 serving in various executive capacities during this time, and has been responsible for several major hospital expansion projects, including the development and successful launch of Florida Hospital Celebration Health, a state-of-the-future healthcare facility opened in 1998 in the Walt Disney World Company’s community of Celebration.

Houmann graduated from Columbia Union College in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.  He received his Master of Healthcare Administration degree from Loma Linda University in 1981. Houmann has spent his entire career in hospital administration, serving at hospitals in Massachusetts, California, Arizona, and Florida.  He has experience with small community hospitals, multi-hospital systems, and large tertiary teaching hospitals in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.

“We are thrilled to announce this appointment,” said Don Jernigan, President and CEO of Adventist Health System. “Lars is well known within Florida Hospital. His creativity, strong knowledge of health care operations, leadership abilities, and passion to make life better for our patients’ physical and emotional needs, make him the ideal person to lead Florida Hospital into its Centennial and beyond,” said Jernigan.

Florida Hospital admits more patients annually than any other hospital in the United States, and is the largest provider of Medicare services in the country. It is a member of Adventist Health System sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It serves as a community hospital for Greater Orlando and as a major tertiary referral hospital for Central Florida and much of the Southeast, the Caribbean, and Latin America.