Larry Kaiser remembers the charge he got when he took over as chief of Temple University's struggling health system in 2011. "I was told in no uncertain terms by one board member that I basically had 18 months to turn it around because they didn't think we could last much longer than that," he said. The enterprise had been running a deficit since 2007, and between 2008 and 2010 had accumulated nearly $133 million in operating losses. It also was recovering from a strike by its registered nurses and technical professional employees.

November 21, 2016 ・ From Philadelphia Inquirer