An unfortunate experience with a hospital inspired Steven Perez, chief financial officer of Artesia General Hospital, to pursue a career in the health care field.

When a family member was hospitalized, he encountered a level of care that he found unacceptable.

"My first experience with a hospital was not that pleasant," said Perez. "The level of care, though, while they may have thought it seemed appropriate, was inappropriate. The bedside manner was inappropriate. The attention that they paid to detail was inappropriate.

"The all-around experience was negative, so I figured I wanted to make a difference.

"I thought, I want to run one of these one day. And I want to make a difference and I want to have the best hospital with the best reputation."

Perez believes that people need to feel that they are receiving care from people who really do care.

"And it’s not just that," he said. "If you haven’t been in that bed, if you haven’t received that type of care, then it’s hard to understand," he said. "I think all the medical staff we have here surpasses most of the medical staff that I’ve seen.

"That’s very impressive."

Most importantly, Perez feels that providing quality, compassionate medical care is simply the right thing to do.

"It’s like living by the Golden Rule," he said.

Perez is impressed by the team-like atmosphere he’s encountered at AGH.

"It’s not just having the support departments, it’s having a great group of people," he said. "It’s having the clinical support as well and working as a team the way we do. It’s like a family here. It really is."

The youngest of five siblings, the Texas native is married with one daughter.

"My wife Grace and I have a nine-month-old girl, Stephanie Grace, he said.

"She’s our first baby and the reason we named her Stephanie Grace was that Grace means ‘gift from God’. We didn’t think we could have children and when we found out we were pregnant that name just had to be in there.

"When Grace herself was born, she coded and she was dead, and the doctors brought her back," he said. "So her mom named her Grace, gift from god, and so it relayed that way. So Stephanie Grace was our own gift in a different way. She started crawling on Sept. 11."

Originally from Alice, Texas, the two met at the hospital where they both worked and where, coincidentally, they were both born.

"I’m actually from the neighboring town, which nobody ever knows, Ben-bolt," Perez laughs. "No one ever knows where that is, but it’s next to Alice, so if you say ‘Alice’ everyone knows where it is."

Perez enjoys hunting and fishing with his brothers, and plays the guitar.

"I did a few things with that in high school. I wrote the class song for graduation," he smiled. "It was nice to make a bunch of guys cry like that. They all ended up putting on their shades when I started playing the song."

Perez values time with his family.

"I work to support my real life," he said. "Family time is really what’s important. This is just an added benefit, a big bonus.

"You could work in a place, get paid a lot of money and not like it. I’ve been in that situation.