Dr. Alex Paya named chief medical officer for HCA Healthcare West Florida Division
Tampa, FL — HCA Florida Healthcare announced today that Alejandro “Alex” Paya, DO, MHA, FACP is the new West Florida Division chief medical officer (DCMO). He will oversee the clinical quality and patient safety programs for the division’s 18 hospitals and 36 emergency locations along Florida’s West Coast.
Paya previously served as the CMO for HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis, a 516-bed tertiary hospital with multiple locations in Palm Beach County.
“Since 2022, Dr. Paya led JFK Hospital’s quality and patient safety programs with a strong patient-centric and regulatory compliance focus. These efforts resulted in significantly lowering hospital acquired infections, readmissions and overall length of stay,” said Jyric Sims, Ph.D., president of HCA Healthcare West Florida Division. “He was also instrumental in JFK Hospital's Cardiothoracic Surgery Program achieving multiple 3-Star STS (Society of Thoracic Surgery) ratings.”
Paya brings a wealth of experience, having previously served as CMO at HCA Florida’s Palms West, Plantation General and University Medical Center Hospitals. He has also held Medical Director roles at other Florida health systems including Lee Health and Baptist Health North. He began his career as a primary care physician and served as Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill/Moses Cone Memorial Hospital and as an Academic Hospitalist with the Duke University Health System.
Fluent in Spanish, Alex earned his bachelor’s degree in Biology from Florida International University and his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine from Nova Southeastern University. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Florida Shands Hospital and holds a Master’s in Health Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Paya is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is an active member of the American Medical Association.