Keys hospital CEO takes advisory role in $500 million Sunrise project

Drew Grossman, the chief executive of Mariners Hospital in Tavernier and Fishermen’s Community Hospital in Marathon, is taking on a second leadership role at Baptist Health’s new Sunrise hospital, giving the Florida Keys a direct connection to a major new campus that is expected to reshape the system’s Broward County footprint. For Monroe County, the appointment signals that a local hospital leader is being trusted with influence beyond the islands.

Baptist Health said March 23 that Grossman will serve as CEO advisor for Baptist Health Sunrise Hospital beginning May 1, 2026, while continuing to lead the two Keys hospitals. The Sunrise project broke ground Jan. 28 and is slated to open in early 2029, or in 2029, depending on the system’s description. Baptist Health has said the project will cost more than $500 million and will be its first hospital in Broward County.

The hospital is planned as a seven-story, 340,000-square-foot facility on a 26-acre site at 12401 W. Oakland Park Blvd. in Sunrise, near the Sawgrass Expressway and north of Amerant Bank Arena. At full buildout, Baptist Health says it will include 100 inpatient beds, including 10 critical care beds, a 30-bed emergency department with three triage areas and 24/7 emergency care, four surgical suites with robotic-assisted capabilities and a 25,000-square-foot medical office building. The system also says 15 acres will be preserved as wetlands.

Grossman’s expanded role matters back home because it puts a Monroe County executive in a position to shape the operating style of a new regional hospital from the start. How a facility is organized, how staff are deployed and how patient flow is managed can affect recruiting, service availability and the standards patients expect across a health system. For Keys residents, that raises the possibility that lessons from Tavernier and Marathon will be carried into one of Baptist Health’s biggest new investments.

Grossman joined Baptist Health in February 2021 and officially became CEO of Mariners Hospital and Fishermen’s Community Hospital on Feb. 25, 2021, succeeding longtime leader Rick Freeburg. In just a few years, he has become one of the most visible health care executives in the Keys, and this additional role suggests that Baptist Health views the region’s leadership as part of its broader future. Baptist Health says it is the largest health care organization in the region, with 12 hospitals, more than 29,000 employees, 4,500 physicians and 200 outpatient centers, urgent care facilities and physician practices across South Florida.