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Hospital CEO Says Services Expanding

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By DEREK MAUL

Tribune correspondent

Published: September 10, 2008

BRANDON - Brandon Regional Hospital Chief Executive Michael Fencel has seen a lot of change in his 11 years at the helm.

"We've grown a lot," he said. "From 255 beds to 407, from 13,000 annual admissions to 23,000, and we've invested upwards of $125 million in nonroutine capital in this facility."

His job has changed too. "My position has become a lot more strategic in nature," he said. "Then, in the last two years, our growth had been phenomenal, the most growth in patient admissions in Hillsborough and HCA."
HCA is Brandon Regional's parent company.

"We've got a great story to tell. HCA sees we have a wonderful franchise, and they're very pleased with our performance," Fencel said.

"The biggest turn-around factor has been the challenges in the Emergency Department. That's a hospital-wide initiative - everybody has to own it," he said. The hospital last year hired Randy Spivey as its new director of emergency services, whose mission has been to improve services - including cutting wait times and hiring more nurses.

Fencel said the hospital is economically stable.

"We're financially viable," he said. "And when you look at investing capital dollars, the decisions often come down to profitability. In Brandon, we've been able to get the capital dollars we need.

For example, urologist Mark Baker was the first surgeon at Brandon Regional to perform a robotic prostatectomy with the new da Vinci S HD Surgical System.

"That little device is about $1.6 million. The question is always, "Can we support investment in that kind of technology?" Fencel said.

"HCA recognizes that health care is run and focused at the local level," he said. "We have the opportunity to figure out what makes the most sense and prove to the owners where we want them to invest capital dollars," he said.

"We have a local advisory board - physicians as well as community leaders. I can think of only one instance when the corporate board got involved with any decision we've made locally."

Fencel plans for the future through program development initiatives, such as a tower that opened with new treatment rooms in 2003.

"The A-tower ... was built five full stories to absorb growth," he said. "This year, we open the fourth floor. We already did the fifth. We have the third floor remaining. The cost would have been dramatically more if we had not planned ahead."

Creating the hospital's cardiac unit was a hard sell initially, Fencel said.

"I'd been told we'd never get a cardiac program," he said. "And now we have women's services and a neonatal unit, plus we're building oncology. The scope of service is expanding."

Born in Philadelphia in 1959, Fencel grew up around Harrisburg, Pa., where his father was a radiologist. He entered Pennsylvania State University as a pre-med student but switched to health care administration mid-stream. He earned his master's degree in business administration from Boston University and came to Brandon in 1983 as part of Humana's administrative specialist program.

"I was only here for a year," he said. "I moved to St. Petersburg, then Pompano Beach and on to Kirksville, Missouri, for my first CEO position in 1989. I moved to West Palm Beach in 1993, then came to Brandon in 1997."

Despite his high-octane job track, Fencel enjoys a solid family life with wife Jami.

"There's a balance between what I want to do professionally and personally," he said. "We've been married 25 years."

He met the former Jami Russell in high school. "Besides doing a fantastic job raising our children, she does a fair amount of volunteering," he said. "Now we have an empty nest. We dropped our son off at the University of Miami last week, and our daughter is at New York University in New York City."

He enjoys his work. "But it can be challenging, and there are over 1,700 employees now; those people are counting on you."

Eleven years is a long tenure in Fencel's world, but he loves Brandon.

"There's a lot of wonderful things about our community," he said. "I've always been very happy here. This community has a lot to offer. And my work is exciting, the on-the-job learning never stops. The management team challenge me in a constructive way - there's never a dull moment around here."

About the future? "I'll tell you, I'm concerned," he said. "The fastest-growing component of our budget is the 'bad debt and charity care' line item. Only because we've grown have we been able to absorb that. It's a huge issue.

"But on a positive note, I don't see our growth slowing down. We need to find qualified people to fill positions. We're working with local schools - they see the opportunity and know the demand is there."

Is there anything Fencel wishes people knew?

"We provide excellent care here every day," he said. "It's easy to forget all that, based on a bad experience someone had 10 or 15 years ago."

MEET MICHAEL FENCEL
Chief Executive, Brandon Regional Hospital
BORN: Philadelphia, Pa., 1959

RAISED: Camp Hill, Pa.

EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree, Pennsylvania State University, 1981; master's in business administration, Boston University, 1983

MARRIED: Jami Russell, 1983

MOVED TO FLORIDA: 1983

CHILDREN: Daughter Nicole; son Jordan

MOVED TO BRANDON: 1997

Derek Maul can be reached at derekmaul@gmail.com.

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