Jeff Hunt, Brandywine Hospital’s new CEO, moved to Chester County after finishing 9th grade at Devon Prep. A graduate of Owen J. Roberts High School and Ithaca College, Hunt’s career path kept bringing him back to the Delaware Valley and Chester County; first to work at Brandywine Hospital, then to launching and running an MRI business out of Exton, then back to Brandywine to build out an MRI business and physician network for Brandywine, Phoenixville and Jennersville Hospitals, CHS’s three Chester County-based hospitals.

This time back he’s got the uneviable task of rallying Brandywine’s staff to collectively rejuvenate staff moral, customer service, patient care and financial statements at the 169-bed community medical center.

VISTA Today sat down with Jeff Hunt last week to ask him about his memories growing up in Delaware and then Chester Counties, his decision to turn down a scholarship offer to play baseball at West Chester and the zig-zag path his career took after college and graduate school culminating in turning around an ailing mid-state community hospital and what plans he has to breathe new life into Brandywine.

VISTA Today: What brought you to Chester County, Jeff?

Jeff Hunt: My family lived in Newtown Square in Delaware County until I had completed 9th grade at Devon Prep. I was the oldest of three kids. At that point, my parents were tired of the suburbs and moved us all to North Coventry in Chester County south of Pottstown. My mom’s parents and family all lived in Philly. When we moved out to North Coventry, they just kept asking, ‘where the heck are you guys moving?’ My mom’s family visited us after we moved, but they didn’t like the drive all that much.

VT: That was a big transition for you. How did you adjust?

JH: It’s was a little bit different than Delaware County in that I couldn’t just walk out the door and go to the store. I had to rely on someone to get me to where I wanted to go. I played baseball, so that was a good way to get to know everyone.

VT: What positions did you play?

JH: I played shortstop and pitcher.

VT: Were you good enough to get a college scholarship?

JH: I was, but I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. One day after a Legion All-star game, Coach Serpico from West Chester talked to my dad and offered me a full scholarship. Instead, I ended up going to Ithaca College, which offered zero scholarship money. I played baseball for Ithaca for three years until an injury effectively ended my aspirations of playing pro baseball.

VT: What jobs did you have in high school?

JH: I worked as a counselor at a baseball summer camp run by my high school coach. But the job I remember most is when my dad recommended me for a summer position with BuxMont Refuge. BuxMont Refuge was a trash collection company based in Lansdale. I was going into my Senior year in high school, and my job was fixing the damage done by the company’s trucks. If one of our trucks ran over somebody’s lawn, my job was to fix the lawn. As part of my job, I also had to paint every trash compactor at Lake Nockamixen State Park! It was hot, there were wasps coming at me and everyone around me was coming to the park and having a good time. I was painting trash compactors. It was the job that helped me buckle down and focus on education.

VT: What if anything did you take from that experience that guide your life today?

JH: Well, I developed a great respect from my work experience that summer. I realized I wanted to further my education to College and appreciated the value and commitment to hard work. I also realized I have to be focused and always thinking, even when things are good, I have to be thinking about how to make things better.

VT: When you were in college, what did you think you would be doing with your life?

JH: At Ithaca, I majored in education. At that point in time, I wanted to be a pro baseball player. My shoulder injury put an end to those dreams. As I rehabbed from the injury, I discovered weight training. About that same time I was doing my student teaching and discovered that, while I loved the rewards of teaching, the career didn’t offer everything I wanted. I decided to pursue an advanced degree and applied to the University of Miami’s School of Education. I graduated with a Master’s degree in Education in 1987. After graduation, I came back to Philadelphia area and took a job as the head strength coach at LaSalle University.

VT: Who gave you the break that put you on the path to becoming the CEO of Brandywine Hospital?

JH: In 1988, I applied for the job of fitness and wellness coordinator at Chester County Hospital. I got the job, but after two years I was asked to join the start-up team at Brandywine Hospital who was setting up a health and fitness center at Oaklands Corporate Center. I moved over to Brandywine and, along with the team got the programs started. After two years, Gary Reinl, an acquaintance I had met at Chester County Hospital while looking into a program for pregnant women, called me and offered me a job establishing rehab programs in Bally’s health clubs around the country.

The Bally’s position led to other job responsibilities and a couple years down the road opening MRI centers around the country. When the recruiter first told me about the job, he said the company was based in a little town outside of Philadelphia called Ex-TON.

I took the job in Exton and one day I drove by Chestnut Hill Hospital in Lafayette Hills and saw all the trailers out back and knew the hospital needed MRI help. I walked into the hospital and asked to meet with the CEO. Ron Schafer, Chestnut Hill’s CEO and spent an hour talking with me about his imaging business.

Turns out, Ron was a divisional Vice President for CHS and was filling in at Chestnut Hill Hospital for a CEO who had left the hospital for another position.

Long story short, a couple of months later Ron called me with an offer to run the regional imaging division for CHS. I couldn’t take the job when he called but suggested we reconnect in a year or so. Sure enough, Ron calls me after a year and tells me he’s been waiting and “saving” the position for me!

I worked for Ron for about a year building CHS’ imaging business not only here in Pennsylvania but additional locations in Texas and West Virginia. Over time, my responsibilities at CHS expanded to building physician referral networks, OP service locations and physician practice management. During this time, I had the opportunity to spend time at Brandywine as well as Pottstown, Phoenixville and Jennersville Hospitals as well as all of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Hospitals.

In 2009, CHS’s corporate CEO asked me to interview for the CEO role at Sunbury Hospital, about an hour north of Harrisburg. I knew the situation at Sunbury wasn’t good; the staff was disgruntled, the medical team was frustrated and the patient satisfaction scores were terrible. I told him I would take the job, but I was a bit nervous.

I had that job for six years and over that time my team and I worked together to significantly improve the quality and safety scores, as well as the physician, employee and patient satisfaction measurements into the highest rankings in the CHS Network of hospitals and some among the highest of any Hospital in the Country. I give the credit to the staff at Sunbury for their great work towards these goals.

VT: Jeff, when did you first notice you had leadership capabilities?

JH: Through the school of hard knocks and good mentors, I picked up a lot about leadership along the way. I learned about the importance of relationships. Every job I’ve ever had has been based on relationships. Building good relationships is about saying what you’ll do and doing what you say, build trust, and having respect. You can’t be a dictator. I ask the tough questions, build accountability through empowerment and give the team the credit when we succeed.

VT: What challenges and opportunities do you see for Brandywine Hospital going forward?

JH: In my first three weeks here, I’ve had a lot of discussions about the things that are not going well. This is natural and I’ve created an on-going list from those meetings that have to get done and am working on checking items off the list.

Our goal is to make Brandywine the best place in the area to receive care. We’ll do that by doing the little things for patients, visitors, doctors and everyone that walks in the door. I, or rather we, need to re-energize the Hospital experience from the inside out. This Hospital has very caring, patient-focused professionals, some of whom I have known for decades, I am very confident we will execute our plans!

VT: Realizing your goal will demand patience along the way. How do you stay patient?

JH: I make a lot of lists each morning to keep all our priorities organized in my head. Then, when I get diverted, I come back to my lists and remember that I have to do this or get that done. I make it a point to return phone calls and emails in a 24-hour period. My job is to simplify our goals for my team and employees. I want our employees to focus on the patients and the people visiting the hospital and allow me to take care of fixing the other stuff.

VT: What is the best piece of advice you ever received Jeff?

JH: When I started working for Gary Reinl at Continental Medical Systems, he told me I needed to communicate the facts and follow-up on the facts and then re-communicate the facts. That taught me the importance of frequent and relevant communication.

Earlier today I went to an internal department meeting. They gave me a list of everything “bad” in the Hospital and the department. I asked them, point blank, if there was anything good happening in the department. One of the department staff gets up and grabs this chart of med errors off the bulletin board. He flipped the chart in front of me and explained his group was in the 99th percentile for a very important patient care measure. I was so excited. I said let’s lead off with that.

Over time, we’ll build pride. That pride helps us retain good people who have a sense of ownership and are proud of what they’re doing.