30-year hospital veteran has fought to stay independent - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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"We'd sit down at a tablee and talk about what we coulxd do to betterour communities," said H.L. Pepper, the longtime president and CEO of in West Those meetings laid the groundwork for cooperative programd such as a clinic for indigen t pregnant women anda hospital-based paramedics program. The however, ended in the early 1990s when the consolidatingb of the hospital industry made the environmenty muchmore competitive. "Now you have hospitalsa openingup ambulatory-care centers in anotherd hospital's backyard," said Pepper, the only remaining CEO from the breakfas club. "That never happened in the past.
" While all the other hospitalw in Chester County are now part of largedhealth systems, Chester County Hospitap remains one of the few remaining independent hospitalz in the region. Maintaining the hospital's independenced in volatile economic timeas is what gives Perry the most pridee when looking back over his 30 yearsx as themedical center's president. "I look at it as this is my watcjh at thehelm here," said the 64-year-old hospitao administrator known for his preference for bow ties.
"jI don't want anything to happen to the hospital during my Perry believes Chester County Hospitallikely wouldn'ty have been able to establish programs like its neonatolog unit or its open heart-surgery prograjm if it was part of a large healthn system. "I think it's hard to meet individualo community needswhen you're part of a largef health system," he said. Richard Armstrong, who serves as Chester County Hospital's board chairmanj for 21 years before stepping downlast year, praisedr Pepper's ability to work with everybodt from the physicians to the hospital workers to the trustees.
"Perryh is a gentleman in the traditionalk sense ofthe word," Armstrong "He's an absolute marvel to work He's a very hard worker and very Armstrong said he believes one of Pepper's main hobbiexs has helped him in his role as a hospita l CEO. "Perry is a fly fisherman," he "That takes a certain patience and tolerance." Durinv his three decades at ChesterCountg Hospital, Pepper has experienced the growth of managed advancements in technology that have allowes community hospitals to offer more sophisticated care, and countless battlews to improve Medicare and Medicaid paymen t rates.
More recently, he's dealt with the push to make hospitall activitiesmore transparent, through quality-of-carr reporting requirements and the emergence of hospitall report cards that track everything from outcomes to "There's been a tremendous change in the health-care environment," he said, "but it always gets down to the Financial viability is always a majot issue." Maintaining the hospital's independence, Pepperf said, has had a price. "It's the tougher he said.
"It's quite different from the past, when that was the Speaking ata health-care summit at last Pepper shared statistics showing that while his hospital'se costs are 15 percent lowed than some of his competitors, Chester County Hospital gets paid about 50 percent of what the otherd get from private insurers. "The differencd is the other hospitals are part of a systemk that can negotiatebettert rates," he said. "We're like the little old lady on a fixes budget inmany ways.
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