- May 31, 2025
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The Lakewood Ranch Medical Center is in the midst of major changes.
A $120 million patient tower is under construction, and Robbert (Rob) Anderson took over as chief executive officer on April 21.
Anderson said the hospital’s potential was the main draw. Being mid-expansion makes his new role that much more exciting, he said..
When Anderson sat down with the East County Observer, it was his fourth day on the job. As the “new guy”, he said he’d done more listening than anything else since the start of the week.
Anderson is a former CEO for Tenet Healthcare with 25 years of leadership experience and a thick Texas accent, as he comes from El Paso.
He described both El Paso and Lakewood Ranch as big communities that feel more like small ones.
Anderson, 49, is looking forward to putting down roots with his wife Diane, a speech pathologist, and their two sons, Rilen and Lyndon.
“A CEO, or any leader, needs to be involved in the community,” he said.
Anderson served on boards for the North Texas Make-a-Wish Foundation, United Way and the El Paso Symphony Orchestra. He also served as a commissioner for the city of El Paso’s Housing Authority and a mentor for the American Hospital Association Leadership Academy.
Philip Reber, the Chief Operating Officer, served as the hospital’s interim CEO after Andy Guz joined Manatee Memorial Hospital as its CEO in September.
Guz was a hands-on, well-liked CEO at LWRMC, who built strong relationships with the physicians and staff over his eight-year tenure.
Before starting his new position, Guz told the East County Observer that LWRMC had the lowest turnover rate he’d ever seen at a hospital. Only two out of 35 directors had left over the prior two years.
Anderson came from a larger hospital, but that only made him more friends. He oversaw 837 physicians in El Paso and said he has about 825 of their cell phone numbers.
He emphasized the point that physicians have a choice as to where they practice medicine.
“That’s what makes you feel good about a business, any business,” Anderson said. “When your staff want to be there and they stay, it means you treat them well and they feel part of the family.”
It works the same with patients. Anderson is likely to give a restaurant with great food and bad service a second chance, but not a third chance. He said patients have to be greeted with a smile, and more important, they have to believe in the staff.
With 60 new beds on track to serve patients in 2026, Anderson will have to start recruiting additional physicians and staff by the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition.
The hospital’s service lines will also play a role in recruitment. Anderson wants to expand services as the hospital expands in size. He expects to spend the next 14 to 24 months determining which services are needed.
Expanded services will include both new services and more of the services the hospital already provides.
Anderson used orthopedics as an example because so many residents play golf and tennis. While LWRMC has physicians on staff who repair and replace shoulders, hips and knees, residents would benefit if more of those physicians were on staff.
Cardiology is another department Anderson is eying for expansion.
“The community continues to grow, so we’ve got to continue to grow,” he said, “So that means new service lines, new technologies and new advancements in healthcare that we want to do here, so that people don’t have to leave our community to receive care.”
Anderson attended one meeting in his first four days regarding the hospital’s expansion. Moving forward, he’ll receive weekly updates.
The Tower Topping Ceremony has not yet been scheduled, but is expected to take place at the end of June. The “topping” is the final beam placement that completes the frame of the building at its highest point.
The five-story, 170,000-square-foot patient tower will be large enough to accommodate an additional 120 beds, but only 60 will be ready for patients next year.
Two of the five floors will remain unfinished to eventually accommodate the remaining 60 beds, which is exactly how the hospital was originally built.
Empty space was built in, so the hospital could grow without any major disruptions.
“We’ve grown a number of times, but most of that growth has been internal,” the COO and interim leader Reber said. “We tried to cater the growth to what the community needed. We built it around the services that were being requested of us at the time.”
That included more than doubling the capacity of the operating room and revamping the imaging suite and labor and delivery unit.
Anderson guessed the shell floors will be built out in about two and a half years, but he said the time to make that decision will be 12 to 14 months after the first 60 beds have been in use. Then, he’ll know for sure if the beds are needed.
Each room will be a private, “universal patient room,” which means patients can receive care that ranges from basic, post-surgical care to an advanced level of care, as if the room was located in an Intensive Care Unit.
"Lakewood Ranch Medical Center is a smaller hospital, but we're going to be bigger," Anderson said. "Once we become bigger, we've got to do more and become better. That's what excites me."
