PBC: What factors contributed to your decision to take the job at Mount Nittany Medical Center?

SEB: Mount Nittany Medical Center is a dream job for me. I am originally from central Pennsylvania, an alumnus of Penn State, and this job feels like coming home for me. In addition, Mount Nittany Medical Center is doing a number of really great things; we were recently ranked number number one in Pennsyvlania for joint replacement, our community has financially supported the addition of a three-story patient tower built solely for patient care, and the staff here is dedicated to providing the best care to every patient and does just that. Our patient satisfaction scores are very high for our care. And, I also see a lot of potential at Mount Nittany. We will soon renovate or expand our emergency department. Our orthopedics program and diabetes program will grow to care for more of this region, and our relationship with the university continues to strengthen to bring academic medicine to this community.

PBC: What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the hospital?

SEB: The strength of this organization is clearly its people. Our patients can be confident the physicians and staff that provide their care are the very best. In addition, our role as the community’s Medical Center helps us to anticipate the needs of the community and bring those services to our area. Right now, we are working hard to ensure that our community has the quantity, as well as the quality of physicians that we need. There is a shortage of family medicine and internal medicine physicians and this trend will continue. We are working now to ensure that our community has the care it needs.

I would say that healthcare in general has a number of challenges. I don’t use the word “weaknesses.” This country and this community have an aging population in need a variety of services for increasingly complex chronic diseases. This is one of the fastest growing cohorts, and we are challenged to continue to meet the needs of our seniors. In addition, we are working to secure more physicians for the area. Regarding the Medical Center specifically, our physical facility is in need of expansion to suit the ever-increasing needs of our community. We have added a significant patient tower to accommodate inpatient needs, but we are also looking to add a cancer care area and expand our emergency department as well. Our master campus plan with Penn State University serves as a plan to determine our capacity for growth.

PBC: What are your short-term and long-term goals in terms of your leadership at Mount Nittany?

SEB: We should be recognized as the leader in the region for health services. The long-term goal of this organization is to become a regional academic medical center and begin to grow our own physicians right here. Because of our affiliation with Penn State University and Penn State Hershey, the opportunities are almost endless for developing additional services and academic medicine. We are also working hard to fulfill the goals of our strategic plan; become a hub for orthopedic and diabetes care, expand our emergency department, and broaden and improve patient access to primary and specialty physicians right here in our community.

PBC: What did you learn from your experience at Evergreen Healthcare, and what do you see as your biggest accomplishment there?

SEB: I had a wonderful eight years at Evergreen. I am always learning, and my experience at Evergreen reinforced what is really important in life. For me, it’s about leaving a place better than when you got there, and to make a difference for the patients and the community. The three things that really matter are the patients and the community, the doctors who bring the patients to us, and the employees who take care of them.

PBC: How is Mount Nittany’s financial situation? Do you think it will it be positively or negatively affected by healthcare reform?

SEB: Mount Nittany Medical Center is blessed with a strong financial position. Our bond-rating outlook was recently upgraded from stable, a very good rating in and of itself, to positive from Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings. We take our role as the community’s Medical Center very seriously and give back more than $4 million annually to those unable to afford care, as well as support organizations that provide other types of health and human service needs to our community, including significant support and contributions to Centre Volunteers in Medicine; a very important service for those unable to afford primary care.

In addition, we are excited to announce that the Centre County Industrial Development Authority will receive an IFIP grant of $250,000 annually for 20 years on behalf of the Medical Center to be used toward debt service on Mount Nittany’s series 2009 bonds. This grant will support the expansion project that we anticipate completing in late summer.

Regarding healthcare reform, we like everyone else, are uncertain of the exact impact reform will have on our community. Our hope is that access to care will be improved as promised for more members of our community, and that funding will be there to pay for the care we will provide regardless. We are working diligently to evaluate and understand the significance of reform for our community and how we can best plan for these impending changes.

PBC: How do you perceive the relationship between the hospital and Penn State to be developing? Are there plans to develop a larger role for Mount Nittany as an educational institution?

SEB: I am working closely with our friends at Penn State to strengthen our relationship with the university, and I’d say it was very strong and growing stronger. It is imperative for us and them to work together to serve the healthcare needs of this community, and the opportunities are almost endless. The university, as the largest employer in the state, has a vested interest in ensuring strong healthcare for the region because of their employees and their families needing convenient, quality and timely access to care. We are very interested in a continued relationship because we see a strong synergistic relationship with them and their medical center to provide a strong foundation with us for bringing academic medicine and all the benefits and services thereof to State College.