Who would think an electrical engineer would wind up virtually running a hospital? The people at Health Management Associates, that’s who. HMA, the operators of the Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in Haines City, recently named an electrical engineer with a masters degree in business administration as their second in command at the northeast Polk facility.

Tom Patrias, a 37-year-old Tulane graduate who later obtained his masters degree at the University of Southern California, took over the day-to-day operations of most of the hospital this past summer and now is in charge of everything from recruiting new doctors to keeping the 193-bed facility sanitary.