SMH Appoints Next Chief Financial Officer, Expands Stroke Network

May 27, 2022 – Sarasota

Sarasota Memorial Health Care System has appointed Jeff Limbocker – a healthcare executive with more than 20 years of financial leadership – to become its next chief financial officer, effective Oct. 3, 2022.

Limbocker will succeed William Woeltjen, who is retiring at the end of the year. Woeltjen, who has served 12 years as Sarasota Memorial’s CFO and three previous years as treasurer, will remain a key member of the SMH executive team as he guides and advises Limbocker through the transition. 

Under Woeltjen’s financial management, Sarasota Memorial facilitated the largest expansion in its nearly century of service, opening its new hospital in Venice and the Oncology Tower on the Sarasota campus last year and embarking on a critically needed behavioral health pavilion and outpatient oncology pavilion this year, all while navigating escalating costs and supply and staffing challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In recent years, SMH also constructed the Courtyard Tower and Rehabilitation Pavilion and created a Trauma Center and physician residency programs, important additions to the Sarasota campus supported by the system’s financial stability.  

“Bill has been an invaluable member of our leadership team whose contributions have strengthened our health system and benefitted our entire community,” said David Verinder, president and CEO of Sarasota Memorial Health Care System. “We have two very big shoes to fill, and I want to thank Bill for his dedication and strategic guidance the past 15 years and his ongoing support as we welcome Jeff, another longtime financial executive, to our organization and community.”

Limbocker comes to Sarasota from Baton Rouge, LA, where he has worked in leadership roles with the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System since 1995. He served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of the not-for-profit, multi-hospital system for the past three years, and previously served 10 years as regional CFO for the health system’s Baton Rouge market and Lady of the Lake Medical Center.

Over the past 25 years, Limbocker shepherded the Lousiana hospital and health system through industry initiatives, challenges and change. His expertise and experience encompass financial management of safety-net programs for the uninsured and medically underserved, developing and testing innovations in research and graduate medical education, forming joint ventures and public partnerships, and overseeing myriad fiscal responsibilities involved in managing revenue cycle, supply chains, insurance contracts and other day-to-day functions of a mission-based, multi-hospital system.

One of several candidates recruited by an executive search firm, Limbocker says he was drawn by SMH’s national reputation, quality of care, longstanding public mission and sound strategic planning.

“I feel very fortunate to have worked for one great mission-based health system for many years, and to be continuing my career at another great mission-based health system,” Limbocker said. “I am looking forward to joining the Sarasota Memorial team and the opportunity to help guide the health system as it continues to evolve and meet the needs of this growing region.” 

SMH Expands its Regional Stroke Network
With designated stroke centers in Sarasota, North Port and now its new hospital in Venice, SMH ensures Suncoast patients receive the right care at the right time 

Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice was officially designated a Primary Stroke Center this month, a specialty certification that expands SMH’s stroke network and ensures patients have seamless access to the most advanced stroke care on the Suncoast.

Certified by DNV GL Healthcare, the Primary Stroke Center designation signifies that SMH-Venice completed a rigorous onsite survey and met or exceeded all requirements established by state regulators and the national accrediting organization for advanced stroke care. 

“With this designation, we are proud to expand Sarasota Memorial’s regional stroke network and offer the people of our community a highly qualified stroke team with the tools and expertise to provide a full range of care for stroke-related emergencies and medical problems,” said David K. Stone, MD, PhD, vascular neurologist and medical director of the Primary Stroke Center at SMH-Venice. 

SMH-Venice is the third facility in Sarasota Memorial’s acute-care network to earn specialized stroke care designations. SMH-Sarasota is a nationally designated Comprehensive Stroke Center, the highest designation given to regional referral centers for people experiencing highly complex strokes, and its freestanding ER in North Port is designated as an Acute Stroke Ready Center. All three facilities follow the same emergency care protocols to diagnose and stabilize patients experiencing stroke emergencies, with helipads to speed transport time for patients who need to be airlifted from rural or outlying areas that lack the resources to treat stroke patients.

Paramedics triage and transport stroke patients to the nearest designated stroke center based on the type and severity of their stroke. More than 85% of strokes are acute ischemic stroke, meaning there is a clot or clog within a blood vessel blocking blood flow to the brain and depriving it of oxygen. If treated in the first 3 hours of their stroke symptoms, the majority of patients can be effectively treated with the clot-dissolving drug tPA at the nearest designated stroke center. 

For those experiencing complex strokes or severe complications, paramedics typically will transport patients to SMH-Sarasota, the only designated Comprehensive Stroke Center in Sarasota County. The Sarasota Campus offers intensive medical and surgical care, specialized tests, and highly specialized interventional therapies, including thrombectomy, a neurointerventional procedure that uses a retrievable stent to mechanically extract a clot from the brain, and endovascular embolization, such as coiling, to stop an aneurysm from rupturing. 

The SMH stroke network also offers the full continuum of stroke care, including inpatient rehabilitation and outpatient rehabilitation programs to help people recover from the effects of a stroke, education and prevention, including an outpatient disease management clinic to help people prevent secondary strokes.

That system-of-care approach ensures stroke patients receive the right care at the right time, regardless of which SMH facility initially treats and stabilizes, said vascular neurologist Mauricio Concha, medical director of Sarasota Memorial’s Comprehensive Stroke Center in Sarasota and stroke program in North Port. 

“Strokes are brain attacks, and just like heart attacks, every second counts,” said Dr. Concha. “To prevent lasting brain damage, it is essential that people treat it like the emergency it is and call 9-1-1. Too many people wait to see if their symptoms will go away and miss a critical window for effective treatment.”