After nearly 14 years of service through an extended period of transformation for Penn State Health, Alan Brechbill, executive vice president of hospital operations, has announced plans to retire effective July 31, 2020.
Brechbill’s career with Penn State Health organization started in December 2006, when he was recruited from Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals to serve as executive director of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. At the time, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center was still recovering financially and culturally from its de-merger with Geisinger.
Brechbill’s careful fiscal stewardship helped put the Medical Center on stable financial ground and weather the 2008-09 economic recession. It also helped position the organization to open the long-awaited Children’s Hospital and Cancer Institute facilities on the Hershey campus. Brechbill also oversaw the planning, financing and construction of the Support Services Building, the Technology Center, expansions of the Hershey Medical Center Emergency Department and numerous other inpatient renovations.
Brechbill played a key role in establishing two specialty care joint ventures, the Penn State Health Rehabilitation Hospital with Select Medical and the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute with then-Pinnacle Health. He remains active as a board member of both organizations today. He also remains active on the board of the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) and is the current chair of the Board of Directors for the Gift of Life Donor Program.
In 2007-08, Brechbill led the effort to redesign Penn State Health employee retirement plans. His efforts included the creation of a committee of physicians and management to provide ongoing oversight of the program, which has resulted in enhanced customer service, a single record keeper to track fund performance and approximately 35 best-in-class funds for investment.
After the appointment of Hershey Medical Center’s first chief quality officer in 2006, the Medical Center’s patient safety and quality programs benefited from major investments and saw steady improvement of its overall quality metrics under Brechbill’s leadership. The Medical Center has earned nine consecutive ‘A’ Grades for Hospital Safety Grades from The Leapfrog Group, while its rankings in the Vizient quality database have been as high as 5th out of approximately 100 academic medical centers in recent years.
In 2016, Brechbill transitioned to the health system role of executive vice president of hospital operations, which has included oversight of the system’s supply chain activities and the overall performance of its hospitals. During his tenure, St. Joseph Medical Center experienced a financial turnaround from an approximate $10 million loss to posting positive operating margins.
In this role, he has also led the planning and development of two new hospitals in Cumberland and Lancaster Counties—Hampden Medical Center, which is set to open in fall 2021, and Lancaster Medical Center, which began construction this past March. He recently recruited Don McKenna to serve as Hampden Medical Center’s first hospital president.
Penn State Health intends to conduct a national search for Brechbill’s replacement and will communicate more in the coming weeks about these plans.
