Alumni/ae Spotlight

James L. Perkins, MHA, CMPE (MHA ’79)

James L. Perkins, MHA, CMPE is an accomplished health care executive with 30 years of experience in the field.  After graduating with a MHA degree from the Medical College of Virginia campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in 1979, Mr. Perkins served as a hospital chief executive officer for Hospital Corporation of America in Reston, VA.  While at HCA, he planned and drafted organizing documents and recruited medical staff and employees for a new acute care hospital and 150,000 square foot medical office complex.  In addition, he successfully pursued certificate of need expansion for emergency, obstetric, catheterization and MRI services.    After returning to Richmond in 1988, Mr. Perkins assumed a leadership role at a successful orthopaedic physician group practice, the West End Orthopaedic Clinic.  With 32 physician specialists and over 300 employees located at multiple Richmond area clinics, WEOC provides outpatient rehabilitation, MRI, radiology, and office surgery facilities.  Today, Mr. Perkins serves as Administrator and CEO for that organization.

From 1995 until 2001, Mr. Perkins taught graduate-level course work in physician practice management in the Health Administration Department at VCU.  He is also a past member of the Woolfolk Medical Office Development Group and is a partner in several medical office buildings he helped envision.  He has spoken before numerous organizations on “Winning Business Strategies for Physicians” and “Operational Strategies for the Successful Orthopaedic Practice.”  He has addressed the Washington Orthopaedic Society, the MCV Department of Orthopaedics, Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Virginia Association of Orthopaedic Technologists, the Medical Society of Virginia, North Carolina Medical Society, numerous hospital medical staff organizations, and the Medical Group Management Association at its national meeting.  Mr. Perkins is also a member of the Ethics Committee and Credentialing Committee for the Richmond Academy of Medicine and a board member of Westminster Canterbury Retirement Community. 

The advice of Mr. Perkins to aspiring health care leaders is for them to recognize the importance of communication between all stakeholders of an organization.  Particularly within the physician practice setting, strong communicators have the opportunity to introduce ideas which can effect positive change.  He emphasizes that strong communicators also make strong leaders. 

Another “tool” Mr. Perkins has found essential throughout his professional career is a good eye for accounting.  He advises each student to recognize the importance of their accounting coursework, as this is a skill which he uses every day as a physician practice administrator.     

In addition to his graduate degree in Health Administration from VCU, Mr. Perkins holds a Bachelor’s degree from The College of William and Mary (1974).