John Couris

About John Couris

John D. Couris is the President and CEO of the Florida Health Sciences Center (FHSC), which comprises a portfolio of organizations, including Tampa General Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for the University of South Florida (USF) Health Morsani College of Medicine. Under Couris’ leadership, Tampa General, in partnership with USF Health, has grown into one of the nation’s top integrated academic health systems, delivering the full spectrum of care from wellness visits to the most complex critical care to residents in communities across Florida. Powered by 15,000 dedicated team members and providers — and in collaboration with leading partners like Mass General Brigham (MGB) — TGH is making world-class health care more accessible and improving lives for all Floridians.

Under Couris’ leadership, Tampa General has expanded access to academic medicine statewide through strategic acquisitions, innovative partnerships and the creation of a comprehensive network of hospitals (including a specialized rehabilitation hospital and a behavioral health teaching hospital), outpatient centers, urgent care clinics, virtual health services and TGH at Home. At the same time, the integrated academic health system has elevated its quality and safety performance to rank among the top 20% of academic medical centers nationally, as measured by Vizient, while improving patient outcomes and operational efficiency. Internally, Couris has fostered a nationally recognized workplace culture built on his AKTiVe leadership. For 2025, the organization achieved a 92nd-percentile engagement index, placing the integrated academic health system in the top 8% of all academic health systems in the nation.

Couris was recently recognized as one of Modern Healthcare’s 2025 “100 Most Influential People in Healthcare,” placing him among the nation’s most innovative and prominent leaders whose work is making a profound impact on the health care industry and shaping the future of health care in this country. Published annually, Modern Healthcare’s “100 Most Influential People” is one of the health care industry’s most highly regarded and significant accolades.

Couris provides counsel and works closely with elected officials at all levels of government to help address issues impacting the health care industry in Tampa Bay, Florida, and on a national scale. His advocacy at the state and federal levels has helped shape health policy, including the At HOME Services Act and the Live Healthy Act, and has helped expand access to behavioral health services across Florida. Couris is also a member of the Florida Health Care Innovation Council, having been appointed to a three-year term in 2024 by Senator Kathleen Passidomo, the Immediate Past President of the Florida State Senate.

Throughout his tenure, Couris has championed innovation across the organization. Working alongside first GE Healthcare and now Palantir, Tampa General established an artificial intelligence and predictive analytics care coordination command center designed to improve the safety, quality and affordability of health care. Today, through an ongoing multi-year partnership with Palantir, Tampa General is building a connected health system of the future to improve patient outcomes and increase operational efficiency by empowering its teams to leverage data and analytics across the health system.

Under his leadership and in a strategic partnership with Shields Health Innovations, Tampa General developed TGH at Home. This highly successful hospital-at-home program provides hospital-level care for patients while keeping them in their nurturing home setting. Couris also helped launch a venture capital fund, TGH Ventures, which is dedicated to fostering an organization-wide culture of innovation while supporting early-stage startups and direct investments, and in collaboration with USF Health and the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, is spearheading the development and expansion of the spearheaded the creation of the Tampa Medical & Research District — an international destination for clinical care, research and biotechnology in collaboration with USF Health.

Couris serves as an expert source and contributor to multiple national publications, offering insights on topics ranging from his visionary approach to care coordination to the principles of authentic leadership. His peer-reviewed case study, “Tampa General Hospital: Harnessing Authentic Leadership to Transform an Academic Health System,” was recently published in Management in Healthcare (Volume 8 / Number 4 / Summer 2024). In January 2025, he co-authored with Peter Chang, MD, “Built from within: A successful blueprint for hospital-at-home programs” (Becker’s Hospital Review, Jan. 8, 2025). Most recently, he and Dr. Thomas Lee, Chief Medical Officer of Press Ganey, co-authored “Can Health Care Organizations Escape the Wholesaler Trap?” which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Catalyst in June 2025.

Couris often speaks and presents at conferences across the country and internationally on topics relating to leadership, organizational transformation and growth, regulatory impact, consumerism, innovation and design, and empowering and leading high-performing teams across the health care space and various sectors. He presented From the Arena: A CEO's Guide to Leading with Authenticity in the spring of 2025 to a sold-out crowd at TEDx Tampa.

Couris is a leader and advocate in his community and industry. He is a member of several boards and has been appointed to state and national councils. He currently serves as an advisor to evolvedMD, Shields Health Innovation, Fountain Healthcare Partners and Waterline Ventures. Couris has received numerous awards and accolades. In 2024, he was awarded the President's Fellow Medallion from the University of South Florida, one of the highest honors the USF President can bestow.