System head maintains healthy outlook in troubled times. Interview by Lynn D. Kahn.

John J. DePierro Jr. has been president of Sisters of Charity Health Care System, a not-for-profit system on Staten Island, N.Y., since 1981. Like many other hospitals in or around New York City, Sisters of Charity's two hospitals--204-bed Bayley Seton Hospital and 447-bed St. Vincent's Medical Center--are struggling to break even. In an interview with Lynn D. Kahn, Health Care Strategic Management's managing editor, DePierro discusses the challenges Sisters of Charity faces, the plans DePierro and his management team have devised to meet them and the extent to which the system's strategic direction is influenced by its mission.