Al Maghazehe rarely stops moving or talking. The president and CEO of Capital Health speaks in fast, clipped tones, dishing out orders and jokes to secretaries and doctors with the same self-assured ease. I wasnt born president and CEO, but maybe I should have been, he says.

Since Helene Fuld Medical Center and Mercer Medical Center merged in 1998, Maghazehe has been at the helm of Capital Health. Iranian-born, Maghazehe arrived in Trenton in 1979, working as an administrative resident at Helene Fuld before climbing the ranks of the Trenton-based health care organization.

Over the past 14 years, the hospital system has shed one hospital the aging Mercer campus. It has also grown Regional Medical Center, formerly Fuld, into a high-tech urban hospital with one of the most sophisticated neuroscience programs in the region, and built a $530 million community hospital in Hopewell to appeal to suburban patients looking for medical care in an upscale setting.

In a conversation with The Times in August, Maghazehe spoke about transforming and building the Capital Health brand, about preparing for health care reform years ago, and about the challenges Capital Health has faced opening a new hospital, including the decision to lay off 175 employees this summer.

How has Capital Health changed as an organization in the past few years, the past decade?

Capital Health has been transformed from a community health care system to a regional health care system.

Where do you see Capital Health in five to 10 years?

In 10 years, I see Capital Health being the leader, as it is today. Our job is to become the health care destination and absolutely maintain a certain level of standards in terms of the status of the communitys health care.

Does that mean more expansions, more primary care doctors offices? How do you continue to build on what Capital Health has already done?

To build upon that, we must accept responsibility for the well-being of the people that live in the communities we serve.

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Capital Health CEO discusses Affordable Care Act, challenges of new hospitals