From EMT to CEO: Jason Kimbrell followed unusual path to Palms West Hospital's top job

At age 22, Jason Kimbrell rode in the back of ambulances in Okaloosa County caring for patients in critical condition. It was his first job after serving four years in the military as a firefighter and paramedic.

He worked nights while attending his first semesters in state college. The job was tough, but Kimbrell felt fulfilled. School was the bigger challenge. He failed algebra twice.

"How in the world can a guy who barely graduated high school with a GPA of 1.5 and was sleeping on his girlfriend's couch end up being the CEO for a Fortune 100 company?" Kimbrell, now the chief executive at HCA Florida Palms West Hospital, asked with a laugh.

"It's not the dog in the fight, but the fight in the dog."

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Last month, Kimbrell, 44, completed his first year at the hospital and celebrated it like it was any other day. He strolled through the hallways between meetings, making rounds to talk with staff members and patients in every wing.

Palms West, on Southern Boulevard near State Road 7, opened its doors in 1986 and has grown into a 200-bed private hospital known for its cardiac care and its full-service children’s hospital. In recent years, it also has played a key role in providing medical services for residents in The Glades.

It's also one of the largest employers in Palm Beach county's western communities. Kimbrell leads over 1,000 employees who care for residents from Wellington, Royal Palm Beach, Loxahatchee and The Acreage.

Over the last 22 years, Kimbrell went from being a first responder to a medical administrator to a hospital CEO. And the man who struggled with algebra now has a bachelor's in molecular biology and a master's and says he is 12 months away from having a doctoral degree in health-service administration.

That kind of professional trajectory is uncommon, said Salvatore Barbera, associate director of Florida Atlantic University’s health administration program.

Traditionally, Barbera said, health care administrators have an exclusively academic formation and rarely have experience, less often a career in clinical care.

"He had to have been an exceptional performer to keep moving up the ranks into higher level positions," said Barbera. "And it was all based on his performance because he didn't have the traditional academic preparation. So he had to be above and beyond."

The reckoning question: 'What are you going to do with yourself?'

Kimbrell's family relocated to the Florida Panhandle from his native Texas in 1980 when he was 2 years old. His father, William, a welder with an eight-grade education, came in search of higher-paying jobs.

His parents soon divorced. His father returned to Texas and lost contact for a few years while battling alcohol and drug addictions. Kimbrell stayed in Florida with his mother, Debra McDonald, and his older brother, Billy, in what he called "survival mode."

They moved often to avoid eviction. They stayed in the dark when electricity got cut off. They relied on churches and food stamps to feed and dress themselves.

"I still remember the sound of when my mom would come in with a paper bag full of food from the food pantry and it hitting the counter," he said. "I'm celebrating with my brother like, 'Hey, it's cereal time.' "

His mother enrolled in nursing school when the boys were in kindergarten. By the time they were teens, she was a licensed practical nurse.

When Kimbrell was 15, they settled in Milton, near Pensacola. One day, he wheeled his bicycle to a ranch where bison grazed. Rufus Hayes, a widely known horse rider, owned the property.

At first, Hayes paid Kimbrell to lay hay and clean stables. They spent hours wiring fences or ripping out weeds. He even sponsored Kimbrell's appearance in the 1999 High School Rodeo Finals in Wyoming.

"So I learned to ride horses from a Hall of Fame cowboy," said Kimbrell. "And that really became my safety, my safe place."

In school, however, Kimbrell struggled, and his teachers assigned him to the work track. Every day, he was a line cook in a deli from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., went to class until noon and then returned to the kitchen. 

He reconnected with his father during a trip to Texas. The elder Kimbrell had remarried and was in recovery and leading a construction team for an asphalt company.

One day, Kimbrell thought, he'd like to be a team leader, too. But, at 18, he was sleeping in his girlfriend Caristen Blakemore's living room and driving a 1978 Chevy pickup he could rarely afford to put gas in.

Her father, Gary Blakemore, woke him up one morning and told him to sit up straight.

"So, you've been dating my daughter for about two years now. What are you going to do with yourself?" his now father-in-law asked. "Are you even getting ready to graduate?

His options were few.

"I could be a farrier," Kimbrell remembered thinking, fitting horse hoofs with shoes like Hayes had taught him. His GPA was 1.25 and he hadn't applied to college.

The movie "Top Gun" had captivated him. Kimbrell said he'd dreamed of flying jets to faraway lands. At 18, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, only to be stationed 60 miles from home.

He was a firefighter and medic at Eglin Air Force Base for two years. He became the youngest airman in his unit be selected to attend rescue technician school. He was promoted to work on a rescue truck and got licensed as a paramedic and emergency service responder.

During his last year in the military, he received a call from his father in Texas.

He said he'd gone to an emergency room for stomach pain. His ammonia levels had spiked, indicating liver failure, but he said the staff would not treat him. He'd contracted Hepatitis C, and despite being clean for 10 years, they dismissed him as an addict.

Kimbrell told him to call back when a doctor saw him.

"Son, they still haven't treated me," Kimbrell recalls his dad whispering a day later. “Son, you are going to be someone one day. I believe you will make an impact."

That was the last time Kimbrell spoke to him. It was Father's Day.

Impressing a CEO: 'I will make a mark in health care'

Kimbrell finished his time in the Air Force by opening a mobile emergency room and training a rescue team in Kuwait. The Pentagon recognized his work with the General Lupia Top Performer Award.

After the military, Kimbrell became an EMT in Fort Walton Beach, pursuing a bachelor's degree in molecular biology at Pensacola State College and attending hospital training, with the goal of being "the best part of a patient's worst day,” he said.

Four years later, he became the first person in his family to graduate from college and was named captain of Okaloosa County's emergency care unit.

In 2004, executives from Baptist Hospital offered him work as a critical-care flight paramedic for their Pensacola Level 2 trauma center. Kimbrell completed over 1,000 missions in seven years, including rescues during Hurricane Katrina.

While he still was a flight paramedic, Kimbrell became an administrator for the first time in 2007 as vice president of operations for Lifeguard Transportation, an emergency-care logistics firm. He was 29.

In 2015, HCA, whose 184 hospitals make it the country's largest health care network, tapped Kimbrell as assistant administrator at Florida West Hospital, a 500-bed-hospital in Pensacola. He also joined HCA's executive development program, a one-year residency to prepare administrators for leadership positions.

Near graduation day, Charles "Chuck" Hall, HCA's National Group president, spoke to the program's students in Nashville. Kimbrell was inspired and wanted to introduce himself, but what would he say?

“My name is Jason Kimbrell," he said and thought of his dad's words. "I want to take a picture with you so you remember me, because I will make a mark in health care.”

"Interesting,” Hall said. He posed for a portrait and followed up with an email. "That was definitely a bold introduction. I'm going to keep my eye on you and your career."

Three months later, Kimbrell’s phone rang.

It was Hall, who wanted to talk about a hospital in Sebring that HCA was set to buy. It expected financial losses the first year. The hospital required an overhaul of its culture. Hall wanted Kimbrell as its CEO.

"'Wait a minute. This was like eight or 10 years ahead of when the timeline should be right,' " Kimbrell said he remembers thinking. "'I'm a hospital employee.' "

In 2018, Kimbrell was named CEO of Highlands Regional Medical Center, where he stayed for three years.

The first year, the hospital reported a loss of $10 million. The next, it saw a return of $15 million. Kimbrell assembled a new team of physicians and launched an orthopedic and spine institute and a robotics surgery department. Construction started on expanded cardiology and emergency centers.

The arc of Kimbrell's career, Barbera said, gives him an unusual understanding of clinical operations and how to lead a staff to succeed in his administrative role.

"When you're at the CEO level position, a lot of what you do is relationship building, both internally and externally," said Barbera. "His clinical background could open doors for him to engage in relationship building with clinical circles, which is good."

Palms West a challenge of scale and pandemic staffing

Hall called again three years later. He wanted Kimbrell to become the CEO at Palms West.

The move meant transferring his skills to a bigger hospital. Palm West is almost double the size of Highlands Regional in beds and handles almost triple its yearly admissions, seeing 12,000 patients.

Kimbrell arrived in the spring of 2021, became CEO in July and immediately faced what he's called his biggest challenge: staffing the hospital, which has about 1,200 positions.

The staff was overwhelmed caring for COVID-19 patients. Many of its members were retiring or leaving the field. Palms West had a 10% turnover rate before the pandemic. Last year, it peaked to 30%.

In the past year, Kimbrell said he has been able to hire physicians, nurses and staff members but some vacancies remain. Sometimes, he says, he'll fill them for a day, cleaning rooms and working in the kitchen when the hospital is short-staffed.

"If I wouldn't have had that diverse experience, I wouldn't be so quick to go down to the kitchen and make sandwiches at 10 o'clock at night or help turnover rooms and cleaning floors in the operating room getting ready for a next surgical case," he said.

For the past year, he drove two hours each way to his home in Lake Placid. Last month, he and Caristen, now married for 25 years, and their three children moved to Palm Beach Gardens.

Every day, Kimbrell said, he makes a point of trotting through every Palms West clinical and administrative department. He asks for patients, listens to updates on their treatment and gives each one his phone number.

"I do that because I want to," Kimbrell said. "I wish someone would've done that for my dad."

Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on Twitter at @ValenPalmB.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palms West Hospital CEO Jason Kimbrell rose to leadership from EMT post