Jonathan Fleece, President & CEO, Empath Health
August 2026 —Invest: spoke with Jonathan Fleece, president and CEO of Empath Health, about the organization’s statewide expansion of home-based, end-of-life care and the operational, philanthropic, and workforce priorities driving that growth. “We want more people to receive the right care in the right place — wherever they call home,” Fleece said.
What changes over the past year have most impacted Empath Health, and in what ways?
As a not-for-profit, community-based healthcare organization serving communities across Florida, we are extremely grateful for our donor base. With four foundations now operating statewide, we experienced a record-breaking year in grants, donations, and charitable giving — all directed toward our mission of providing extraordinary full life care for all.
One area seeing tremendous support is dementia education and caregiver programs. Florida is projected to have more than half a million Alzheimer’s patients by 2030, so we are expanding services not only for individuals living with dementia, but for the caregivers and families navigating those conditions. A key milestone was opening a new dementia education center in the Ocala-Marion County area. Across the state, Empath is actively growing a comprehensive network of dementia services—extending education, caregiver support, and care delivery to meet the needs of individuals, families, and community partners wherever they are.
Our foundations also support grief care, workforce development, and other mission-critical programs. We are serving one in five Floridians who need end-of-life care, so we are focused on working smarter and more efficiently. A major priority has been strengthening operational systems to improve quality and patient experience while reducing costs.
We’ve advanced what we call the “one Empath, one hospice” model, which unifies historically separate organizations under consistent platforms, protocols, and practices. That alignment allows us to deliver care more uniformly statewide while improving outcomes.
Technology and innovation are essential to this transformation. We are increasingly relying on data-driven decision-making, artificial intelligence tools, and efficiencies that allow us to scale home-based care. Regulatory changes in Washington have placed new pressures on home-based care providers that have pushed us to be very active in advocacy at both the state and federal levels to reinforce the value of caring for people where they most want to be — at home rather than in institutional settings.
What improvements are you prioritizing to enhance the patient experience?
One of our core strategic imperatives is to invest in our colleagues and volunteers. With nearly 4,000 employees and almost 4,000 volunteers, we are an 8,000-person mission-driven team. Technology helps us reduce administrative burdens so they can focus more on bedside care.
A major area of investment is voice recognition and ambient listening technology, which can transcribe clinician-patient interactions and reduce documentation time. That frees clinicians to spend more time with patients and families while still maintaining accurate records in our electronic medical record system.
We are also expanding automated scheduling and route optimization. Because our clinical workforce is constantly on the road, technology that tracks visit activity, automates scheduling, and optimizes travel routes helps us minimize windshield time and respond more quickly to patient needs.
Another focus is population health analytics. With one integrated electronic medical record system, we can identify trends in patient conditions, flag accelerating decline, and intervene earlier. That supports more home-based care, reduces avoidable hospitalizations, and strengthens telemedicine capabilities. Ultimately, the technology enhances the human-centered work at the heart of end-of-life care.
What trends are you seeing in Tampa Bay, and how are you approaching talent attraction, development, and retention?
Workforce is central to our strategy, and we are committed to investing in our colleagues and volunteers. We are proud to be nationally recognized as a best place to work in healthcare, and that distinction reflects intentional efforts around culture, development, and support.
We operate the only accredited hospice nurse residency program, allowing us to hire nurses directly out of school and train them through the Empath nurse residency program. We have expanded that program to strengthen our pipeline of end-of-life care clinicians.
We offer growing scholarship opportunities to support lifelong learning, and our Colleague Champion Council — typically 50 to 60 colleagues — helps guide decisions on compensation, benefits, and workplace priorities. Recent initiatives include expanded parental leave and enhanced wellness programs.
Our colleague assistance fund provides financial support during hardships such as hurricanes, unexpected loss, or other economic challenges. We are also deeply committed to leadership development and succession planning, helping colleagues see long-term career paths — what some call a “CNA-to-CEO” trajectory. When people can envision advancement within the organization, engagement and retention strengthen significantly.
How are you strengthening your presence in Tampa Bay, and what collaborations stand out?
Moffitt Cancer Center is a great example of our community partnerships. We have a close collaboration that includes an inpatient program and coordinated approaches for patients transitioning into end-of-life care. We have similar partnerships with other health systems to support continuity of care for frail elderly individuals and people leaving the hospital who need post-acute support.
Workforce development partnerships are also key. Through Florida’s LINE Grant Program — Linking Industry to Nursing Education — healthcare organizations contribute to training grants that the state matches dollar-for-dollar. This supports universities and community colleges in hiring more faculty and graduating more nursing and healthcare students.
In Tampa Bay, we partner with the University of South Florida and State College of Florida on these initiatives. On the East Coast, we collaborate with Florida Atlantic University on a social work program to strengthen the pipeline of social workers, which is essential in end-of-life care.
We also participate in a palliative care fellowship program to train physicians in hospice and end-of-life care. After completing the fellowship, many of these physicians join Empath Health, further building expertise and clinical leadership.
Looking ahead, what key priorities will guide Empath Health as you move into the coming year?
A major priority is expanding our home-based care platform. We want more people to receive the right care in the right place — wherever they call home. This improves outcomes and helps steward healthcare dollars, particularly as Medicare and Medicaid budgets face mounting pressure.
With a rapidly aging population and limited reimbursement growth, we are focusing on value-based, home-based care programs where we can take on more of the healthcare dollar risk and help manage the allocation of care. That positions us as a “pay-vider” — both a provider of care and a partner in managing healthcare dollars to ensure right care, right place, right time.
We also remain deeply committed to people in the end-of-life chapter, which can span years, months, or days. Whenever individuals and families recognize they are in that chapter, we want to be there with them. Most of that population is seniors, so our focus on elder care and home-based support remains strong.
Ultimately, our goal is simple but profound: that no one ever feels alone, and that every person experiences extraordinary, compassionate care throughout their end-of-life journey.
