Temple health system's CEO stepping down

Joseph W. "Chip" Marshall, president and chief executive officer of the Temple University Health System, said yesterday that he was stepping down after seven years in the job.

Marshall's new boss at Temple, Edmond F. Notebaert, started last week.

Marshall, 55, said yesterday that he had been fielding calls about possible new jobs for months and that Notebaert's arrival and the presence of a strong management team made this a good time to go. "With Ed here, I'm free to make this decision," said Marshall, who will stay at Temple through Dec. 15. He said he was not forced out.

Temple announced in September that it had hired Notebaert, former president and chief executive officer of the University of Maryland Medical System and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, to run its school of medicine and health system. This was a newly created position above Marshall's. Notebaert, whose title is senior executive vice president for health affairs at Temple University, started Saturday.

When asked if Notebaert would now take on Marshall's duties or hire a replacement, Ray Betzner, a Temple University spokesman, said the decision on whether to fill the CEO position had not been made.

In a written statement, Notebaert said: "I am very excited for Chip Marshall and the opportunities that lie ahead for him. I look forward to working with him in the future."

Marshall is a health lawyer who was on the Temple health system board starting in 1995. He was named CEO in 2001.

The Temple system, based in North Philadelphia, has 7,500 employees and annual revenue of about $1 billion. It includes Temple University, Jeanes and Northeastern hospitals and Temple's Episcopal Campus. It operates in a particularly challenging financial arena, because a high percentage of its patients are covered by Medicaid, a poor payer compared with private insurance firms.

According to Temple's reports to bondholders, the system had net income of $15.7 million in the year ended June 30, compared with a $31.4 million gain a year earlier and a loss of $20.1 million two years earlier.

In operating income, it reported a loss of $52 million in the most recent year, compared with a $8.8 million gain a year earlier and a $36.9 million loss two years earlier.

It also said patient volume this year was lower than predicted, a problem the system was addressing by recruiting more physicians.

Marshall said that, during his tenure, "by and large, on a bottom-line basis, we've been pretty successful."

Marshall, a Temple graduate who is also on the university's board, has a wide-ranging background. He founded a law firm that specialized in corporate-health law and also operated a health-care consulting firm. He is a former member of the Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission and served on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board from 2004 to 2006.

He said he had been discussing jobs that run the gamut of his interests, from health care to law to gaming. His two-year prohibition from working in the gaming industry expires next month, he said, adding, "I'm not trying to hint at anything."

Anyone working in health care today, he said, is struggling with the combination of "almost insatiable demand with very limited resources."

He said he thought Temple was coping well. "I think Temple's best days are ahead of it," Marshall said. "The health system today is better than it was when I started."

When asked about his biggest achievement, he said: "I'd like to think that my proudest moment hasn't arrived yet. I'm looking forward to exploring new opportunities."