Children’s Hospital of Orange County is about halfway done with construction of a patient tower that’s rising amid the skyline of hospitals and office buildings in Orange.
Kerri Ruppert Schiller played a big role in making it happen.
The 425,524-foot tower is the centerpiece of a $562 million expansion at CHOC.
Nearly half of the cost is being funded by a $265 million bond offering that Schiller led in mid-2009, a time when selling debt of any kind was difficult.
State Funding
CHOC didn’t have much choice. The hospital has received about $100 million of $130 million or so in expected state bond money for the project.
But it faces uncertainty about the timing of the rest of the state money amid Sacramento’s ongoing financial woes.
The hospital did its own bond offering “to protect the project,” Schiller said.
“We borrowed early and added a little cost to the project because we were paying interest early,” she said. “It was the right thing to do. It kept our team really focused on implementing this project and not having to worry about having any kind of noise because of funding.”
Schiller was honored last week at the annual CFO of the Year awards in Irvine presented by the Business Journal and the Orange County and Long Beach chapter of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants. She received the CFO of a Not-for-Profit award.
CHOC also is using donations and money from operations to pay for its South Tower, which is set to be done in late 2012 and see its first patients in early 2013.
The tower is expected to house 400 beds with room for future growth, according to Schiller.
Track Record
Schiller has been CHOC’s chief financial officer since 1998.
Her track record includes reversing yearly losses at CHOC in 2000 and helping the hospital gain “A+” ratings from debt rating companies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings in 2004.
She also helped rework construction contracts for CHOC’s tower that helped keep the project moving during the downturn.
The new contracts resulted in savings of $60 million to $80 million, according to Schiller.
Schiller oversees the books of an operation with more than $370 million in yearly patient revenue, 2,330 workers and 264 licensed beds.
CHOC serves children throughout OC at its primary campus in Orange and a satellite facility at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.
Schiller’s responsible for the management and direction of all financial operations for other CHOC units, including the CHOC Foundation for Children, Children’s HealthCare of California and its real estate holding companies, CHOCO Realty Corp. and CRC Real Estate Corp.
Government Programs
On a daily basis, Schiller deals with a key dilemma for CHOC: Some 60% of its patients are covered by government programs rather than private insurers.
“It’s very difficult to overcome that,” she said.
Before coming to CHOC, Schiller worked for a pair of now-defunct for-profit healthcare companies, Comprehensive Care Corp. and Maxicare Health Plans.
Schiller is a 1982 graduate of California State University, Fullerton, with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. She remains involved with her alma mater through several programs, including being part of its philanthropic board and chairing its nursing initiative.
Schiller also volunteers at a food bank one Saturday a month.
