{"id":392461,"date":"2026-09-06T23:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/392461\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T23:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T23:36:11","slug":"leaving-a-legacy-at-lee-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/392461\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving a legacy at Lee Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

Lee Health\u2019s Donna Clarke and Lawrence Antonucci. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Healthcare has always been an essential lifeline worldwide; nobody can beat the flu with their own two fists. It takes a team of doctors, nurses, therapists, surgeons and many other health care professionals to care for patients and help people reach a healthy, fulfilling life.\n<\/p>\n

For Southwest Florida locals, the name Lee Health is a familiar one; it\u2019s not just a name on a hospital or doctor\u2019s office. The name carries a legacy of individuals who go the extra mile and treat you like family. This is the feeling Dr. Lawrence \u201cLarry\u201d Antonucci wanted to create during his time as CEO, which first started in June 2017.\n<\/p>\n

After Antonucci announced his retirement on Dec. 12, 2025, he plans to leave Lee Health with pride in what the team has accomplished and plans to look ahead to the future.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr. Lawrence Antonucci (center) with his family. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I look back over my career, I think about the moments where I had such pride for the people in the organization, and I think back to Hurricane Ian. I think back to the pandemic, and how during that pandemic we were dealing with a disease we had never seen before, and we were changing protocols almost daily,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cI saw staff doing everything they could to save all these people\u2019s lives, not even knowing what risks they were putting themselves in.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For Antonucci, the drive to help others came from an early age when he first gained inspiration from his uncle.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a really influential family member who was a physician, an uncle of mine, and as I got through school, I recognized that I was doing very, very well in the sciences and in math, and one of my cousins encouraged me that I should really try to go to medical school,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cSo, while I was in college, I changed my major to pre-med and decided that I would do it. The appeal of being able to take care of people at a very, very special time in their lives, it just really appealed to me.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

After completing part of his education in Virginia, Antonucci moved to Fort Myers in 1983, where he has lived for 43 years. Since moving down, Antonucci has gotten to know the area well and has grown roots within the local community.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were staying at a timeshare on Fort Myers Beach that my sister owned when I was a resident, and we thought what a nice community this was, and so I made some calls and asked some people, and found a physician here who was looking for a partner,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cWe literally met at the Edison Mall food court, we had lunch and clicked from there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

From physician to CEO<\/p>\n

After practicing for years as an obstetrician and gynecologist, he worked to become one of the founding members of Physicians Primary Care. Antonucci strongly believes that opportunities will strike when you work hard at your current job, which led him to discover an opportunity he never expected.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dr. Lawrence Antonucci (far right) with Governor Ron Desantis (middle). -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter practicing for 24 years, I got a call from the then CEO of Lee Health, Jim Nathan and he asked me if I would be interested in joining the leadership team here. And so, I had to make a decision to stop practicing then,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cThe opportunity to affect healthcare in such a bigger way really appealed to me. I joined the team in 2007 and was at Cape Coral Hospital, and ran it for a few years before I became chief operating officer for the whole system, and then CEO and president when Jim retired in 2017. So, it\u2019s been an interesting path.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Since Antonucci became CEO, several major advances have been added within the Southwest Florida community, including:\n<\/p>\n

Golisano Children\u2019s Hospital, opened in 2017, is a facility with 135 beds, part of a $235 million donation made by philanthropist Tom Golisano.
\nLee Health Coconut Point, which opened in 2018, provides full medical services to Estero residents.
\nGulf Coast Medical Center expanded in 2021 to 699 beds in a $315 million project that involved moving the region\u2019s Regional Trauma Center from Lee Memorial Hospital to Gulf Coast Medical Center.
\nLee Health launched its Hospital at Home program at Gulf Coast Medical Center in November 2024, providing patients with hospital-level care within their homes with remote monitoring and multidisciplinary teams.<\/p>\n

Lee Health has also worked within the community throughout the years to make several large donations to nonprofits such as United Way, Harry Chapin Food Bank and others.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tDr. Lawrence Antonucci has made many appearances at local events through Lee County, bringing powerful remarks and a speech regarding healthcare and the community. -DAVID WISHTISCHIN \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tLeft to right- Lee Health Chief Operating Officer (COO) Ben Spence, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Lawrence Antonucci and Chief People Officer (CPO) Mike Wukitsch at the press conference announcing Spence\u2019s move to Lee Health CEO. -DAVID WISHTISCHIN \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY
\n\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n

For Antonucci, Southwest Florida has become a home, a place to watch his family and friends grow and a community he has invested in.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s where we, my wife and I, started our family in 1983, and we raised our three daughters here. They went through the Lee County School System and graduated, and we all attended the University of Florida,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cSo, this community means a tremendous amount to me, having spent 43 years here and watched it grow, and seen how our health system has grown alongside it. It\u2019s where we live, and it\u2019s where we\u2019re going to continue even after retirement.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Looking toward the future<\/p>\n

With the CEO and president position transitioning to Ben Spence, a man who worked his way up at Lee Health over 20 years, he has held several positions, including chief operating officer. Antonucci believes Lee Health is left in great hands and with a bright future ahead.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBen is a really unique individual. Ben has been with the system for 31 years. He started out as a finance clerk, and because of his intelligence, his hard work and his passion, he\u2019s been able to rise through the ranks to chief financial officer and then chief operating officer,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cI think the board made an incredibly smart decision because he understands the culture of the organization, and that is the most important asset that we have.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

President and Chief Executive Officer of Lee Health, Dr. Lawrence Antonucci takes the podium at Florida Gulf Coast University\u2019s Marieb Hall groundbreaking. -DAVID WISHTISCHIN \/ FLORIDA WEEKLY<\/p>\n

With the world of AI intelligence and technology constantly evolving, Antonucci believes health care needs people with dedication and passion like Spence to work with patients and staff.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBuildings and computers-they don\u2019t take care of patients; people do. And understanding the culture of the people here is going to be critical,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cI think it also provides a level of reassurance to our team and our staff and our community that someone with that kind of history is going to be leading the system.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

With all the experience Antonucci has as he enters retirement Sept. 30 and plans his next steps, he wanted to share a piece of advice for newcomers to the healthcare field looking to make a difference.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe advice I give young people, regardless of what field they\u2019re in, is a couple of things. One is to focus on the job you\u2019re doing and not be focused on the next job,\u201d Antonucci said. \u201cI\u2019ve seen so many leaders\u2019 careers just fall apart because they were just so focused on the next job, the next promotion. \u2018Where am I going to go from here?\u2019 That they lost focus on what they were supposed to be doing, and as a result, they didn\u2019t get the recognition that they should have gotten to get that next job.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

He believes that goals are important, but not to let them shadow an opportunity that could lead to something great.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be so blinded by the goal that you miss out on an opportunity in the periphery that you never even imagined could be there, and that certainly was my history. You know, I was a practicing physician,\u201d Antonucci continued. \u201cI thought I\u2019d be a practicing physician until I retired. Until an opportunity came up that I never anticipated. That was to join the leadership team here at Lee Health. So, my advice is always be open to opportunities that you never even thought could be there, and when they come along, think about them. You know, because it may open doors that you never imagined.\u201d\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lee Health\u2019s Donna Clarke and Lawrence Antonucci. -COURTESY PHOTO Healthcare has always been an essential lifeline worldwide; nobody…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-392461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}