Harry Hutchison, the vice president of finance and CFO at St. Bernards Healthcare in Jonesboro, is driven by his organization’s mission. “This organization is different from any other organization I’ve ever worked with as far as being mission-minded,” said the 63-year-old Hutchison. “I look forward to work every day.”
The mission of St. Bernards is “to provide Christ-like healing to the community through education, treatment and health services.”
Hutchison, whose career spans about four decades and who has been at St. Bernards since 2005, said his current job is by far his favorite. But he is proud of his accomplishments at other hospitals where he has worked, which includes hospitals in Paragould and El Dorado.
“Some hospitals have had a very difficult financial situation when I got there, but I’ve always seemed to be able to improve that,” Hutchison said.
Born in Memphis, Hutchison said he had always been good at math. He graduated from Harding University with an accounting degree and later earned his master’s in health care administration from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
He entered the health care industry initially because he wanted to leave a job that had him traveling three weeks every month. “Over time, I began to see how important it was to manage the resources of whatever health care organization I was with at the time to make sure we could meet our mission,” Hutchison said.
Hutchison is helping manage the finances for St. Bernards’ $137.5 million remodel and expansion of its hospital. “We plan to come out of this project as close to debt-free as we possibly can,” he said. The construction work is expected to be completed in 2020.
He wants to finish his career at St. Bernards Healthcare. “I’d really like to see this project though,” he said.
