As a young child, William "Chip" Holmes would sit down to eat at the kitchen table and listen to his father, a pediatrician, and his mother, a nurse, discuss the day-to-day affairs of their shared private practice in Fairfax, Vt. Healthcare has always been a part of life for Holmes, now administrator at Littleton (N.H.) Regional Hospital, but he says it was the business and sociological sides of the vocation that led him to pursue a graduate degree in healthcare administration at Tulane University in New Orleans. Plus, he says

Almost 30 years after those talks at the kitchen table, Holmes, 37, has dramatically excelled in administration through leadership posts he's held at hospitals across the country. He worked as a facility administrator with hospital management company QHR (purchased by Triad Hospitals in April 2001) and HCA predecessor Hospital Corporation of America-including a three-year stint as chief executive officer of 60-bed Richmond (Va.) Eye and Ear Surgical Specialty Center when he was only 29 years old. These accomplishments helped him win the American College of Healthcare Executives 2005 Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for young healthcare executive of the year. Holmes will accept the award March 15 during the ACHE's annual Congress on Healthcare Management in Chicago.

Littleton Regional's outgoing board chairman, George Broder, says Holmes came to Littleton equipped with the makings of a great leader. "He's younger than some of my own kids," Broder says, "and to obtain the knowledge that he has and still be willing to learn ... is what makes him a good CEO."

Broder also lauds Holmes' willingness to seek advice from others when making decisions. That skill proved crucial when Holmes arrived at the 25-bed hospital in 2001 to find that it had lost more than $5 million in the three years before he came on board and had changed its designation to a critical-access hospital only a few weeks before he walked through the door.

"It wasn't easy to pull the hospital out of debt," Holmes says. "But it's a collaborative effort; it's about engaging the staff and asking them to be involved because they care about the success of their hospital. It's not about me."

Holmes insists that he is "just the guy who helped bring the staff through the different changes," which included an overhaul of the accounts receivable department, improving communication between departments and some layoffs. But what Holmes calls "rapid belt-tightening" has paid off. After just one year at the hospital, Holmes helped Littleton Regional turn an operating profit of $1.4 million in 2002. The newer method of setting target dates in accounts receivable also worked, halving the average age of delinquent accounts to 60 days from 120 days.

Broder, who was part of the interviewing committee that hired Holmes at Littleton Regional, says he feels that Holmes' leadership is crucial to the hospital's financial recovery, including improvements to the bottom line and the hospital's credit rating, which rose to BB from BB-, according to Standard & Poor's. "Our bondholders have been very pleased," Broder says.

In addition to strengthening the hospital financially, Holmes says he has tried to emphasize a community atmosphere among the staff and patients. Growing up in a small town, he says it was his dream to serve a rural community and he feels particularly at home in Littleton-a town with a population of about 4,400.

"Here we are every day, taking care of people who are our friends and neighbors, people we will see in church, or at the post office," Holmes says. "(We) can impact positively or negatively the experiences friends and neighbors will have in the hospital, and that is important to remember."

The idea of family is important to Holmes, which is why he relishes the time he spent working at QHR before his experience at Littleton Regional. He interned at 351-bed Ellis Hospital, Schenectady, N.Y., and 52-bed Northwestern Medical Center, St. Albans, Vt., and was CEO at 151-bed Abilene (Texas) Regional Medical Center and Richmond Eye and Ear.

"I'm feeling lucky that I had the chance to be a part of the Quorum family and (to have met) these people who were willing to give me a chance every step of the way and who were just generous in their time with me," Holmes says.

Bob Dwyer, former East Coast regional vice president at QHR, based in Brentwood, Tenn., was someone who always looked out for Holmes as a friend and mentor from the time Holmes was a young college intern at Ellis Hospital to his transition to CEO of Littleton Regional.

"I could tell early on that he was a bright, articulate young man and was the kind of guy that would be good in healthcare because he had a clear view on what he wanted to achieve," says Dwyer, who is executive director at Daughters of Sarah Senior Community, an assisted-living center in Albany, N.Y.

Dwyer alerted Holmes to the CEO job openings in Virginia, Texas and New Hampshire. Dwyer says he is positive that Holmes' focus and leadership qualities would make him a success regardless of location.

"It's nice to have seen someone that I was close to do so well in this career," he says. "And I'm very pleased and very proud. ... He did a lot on his own."

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