HCA Florida Healthcare's youngest CEO takes the reins

If you had told Allyssa Tobitt, 33, when she was a child that she’d someday be the youngest CEO in HCA Florida Healthcare history — leading a team of more than 2,000 at HCA Florida Mercy Hospital in Miami — she would have laughed out loud. Her dream growing up was to become a doctor. In fact, it was an ambition she pursued all the way through her last year of college, when she took the MCAT^® and, in her words, “bombed.”

“I thought, ‘Well, I don’t know what I’m going to do now because, my entire life, being a doctor was all I ever wanted to be,’” Tobitt says.

During her undergraduate years at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), and with an eye toward her goal of becoming a doctor, Tobitt had completed three internships with HCA Healthcare: two with HealthTrust Purchasing Group, an HCA Healthcare subsidiary, in Brentwood, Tennessee; and one with TriStar Centennial Medical Center, HCA Healthcare’s flagship, in Nashville. 

Tobitt’s internship with TriStar Centennial involved rotating through different departments, where she “met people and saw roles you just don’t know exist when you’re in college.”

One of the people Tobitt met was a young woman who was working on implementing an IT tool for the hospital.  

“She told me that she’d just graduated from college and had been accepted to a program within HCA Healthcare that trained her to do IT process implementation,” Tobitt says. “She said, ‘You should try it, especially until you decide what you want to do for graduate school.’” 

So when she graduated in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and exercise science, Tobitt applied. The rest, as she says, is history.

“One of my first roles was in a physician practice,” Tobitt recalls. “And just a month into it, I realized I didn’t want to be a doctor. As I started experiencing more from a non-physician perspective, I realized I enjoyed the business aspect of healthcare more than the clinical aspect.”

Six months into her job, Tobitt used HCA Healthcare’s tuition reimbursement program to begin an MBA program at MTSU. In January 2015, she was promoted to manager of clinical excellence. About a year and a half later, after receiving her MBA, Tobitt made her first big move — to HCA Florida Aventura Hospital between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, where she’d been named assistant vice president of operations.

Tobitt served in that role for two and a half years before moving to Tampa to become vice president of operations at HCA Florida South Shore Hospital. Then, in 2020, she moved to Sarasota, to assume the role of chief operating officer (COO) of HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital.

The next big move came in August 2021, when Tobitt and her husband, Wesley, moved from Sarasota to Fairfax County, Virginia, where she’d been named COO of Reston Hospital Center.

“Of course, there are difficulties that come with moving around, but my husband [who works as a teacher] and I are at a time in our lives where it hasn’t been a difficult thing to do. We’ve really made the most of it and look forward to exploring new places and cultures,” Tobitt says. 

In November 2022, Tobitt was promoted to CEO of Parham Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. During her tenure, Fortune/PINC AI and Healthgrades recognized the hospital as one of the top 100 in the country. 

Back to Florida, this time as a CEO

This month, Tobitt not only marks 12 years with HCA Healthcare, she also starts her biggest role yet: CEO of HCA Florida Mercy Hospital, a 488-bed acute care facility serving Miami-Dade County and its surrounding communities. 

Driving into the major city in a minivan with their dog, Finn, was “surreal,” Tobitt says.

“My husband and I were looking at each other like, ‘Who are we?’” she says. “It feels overwhelming. I was thinking, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I got this job,’ because one thing I’ve always struggled with — and I’m sure others do, too — is imposter syndrome. But I think the important thing for me, and for others, to remember is that I got the job for a reason. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have to prove I deserve it.”

Although she may struggle with imposter syndrome at times, Tobitt believes her authenticity is one of the major reasons she’s in a leadership position today. It’s also the first thing she asks of her team members. 

“We read so many books and do so many leadership programs and trainings. All those skills are important to our development, of course. But when we’re not ourselves, people notice,” she says. “I always ask my team to be themselves first and foremost. That’s a top priority for me.”

Being authentic is also the number one piece of advice Tobitt gives other young women who look up to her as a mentor. The second? “Always be the one to close the loop,” she says, explaining, “We communicate with so many people every day, whether [in my case] it’s a colleague, physician or community member. When you close the loop, you’re following up with them after you talked about something. It builds trust with them and shows that what you talked about matters.”

Tobitt’s third piece of advice for young women coming after her is to be relentless in advocacy.

“In our jobs, we’re trying to solve problems all day long,” she says. “And if we’re not the ones being relentless about getting to an answer — even if it’s not the one we want — then no one will be. That’s why we must be relentless advocates for the things that are most important to the people we serve, including our colleagues.”

A mission for helping others

Although Tobitt says she’s proud to be in a position where she can represent young women and help them chart similar career paths, she doesn’t want them to only seek out women leaders as mentors. She notes that two of her most influential mentors were men — one of whom was close to retirement when she was just starting out in leadership.

“He was one of the best bosses I’ve ever had,” she says. “The impact he’s had on me, both personally and professionally, is vast.”

Still, the person who’s had the biggest impact on Tobitt is her mom. 

“She had me at a young age,” Tobitt says. “She dropped out of high school to have me, then got her nursing degree. She worked so hard to beat the odds. And she did. I saw the opportunities given to her as a nurse, and it made me want to go into healthcare, too.”

Tobitt’s mom now works in healthcare administration. 

“She’s why I do what I do,” Tobitt says. “She’s the reason I wanted to be a doctor, and now, she’s the reason I want to help others find their way. Most people wouldn’t have thought my mom would get very far, but she did because people gave her opportunities. Being able to do that for others is what I find most fulfilling in my career. It’s really come full circle.”

Learn more about careers with HCA Florida Healthcare

At HCA Florida Healthcare, we have more than 650 sites of care throughout the state, employing more than 84,000 colleagues and 11,100 physicians. As a part of HCA Healthcare, we are committed to creating a connected and collaborative healthcare experience for our colleagues, patients and communities. Learn more about careers with HCA Florida Healthcare.