Helen Keller Hospital - A new chief executive officer to lead Helen Keller Hospital could be announced by early May, according to the hospital board.
"We've had nothing but conversations to this point, but we expect to do something in the next few weeks" that will include offering an employment contract, Keller board President Larry Collum said.
The position is being vacated by Bill Anderson, who has been at the helm since 1999.
Three candidates for the position have been interviewed, one of whom was unable to accept the job because of family obligations, Collum said.
A third candidate, Doug Arnold, 59, originally from Alabama, recently toured the Keller facilities, Collum said. The process has included meeting with the members of the board and administrative staff as well as department managers within the hospital.
Arnold's most recent position was as the CEO for the Northwest Health System in Springdale, Ark. He resigned that post in March of 2010.
Collum said the experience of working with a for-profit hospital organization will provide a degree of expertise needed locally.
"In the health care environment we're in now, in order for us to be financially viable, we need that kind of experience," he said. "The Affordable Care Act is going to be very difficult for us to be financially viable, and we need someone who knows how to deal with that."
The local environment was made even more competitive in 2010 when Coffee Health Group was bought by RegionalCare Hospital Partners, a for-profit hospital organization based in Brentwood, Tenn. As part of the purchase, RegionalCare is expected to invest more than $30 million into the current facilities at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, recruit additional doctors to the area and build a 250-bed replacement hospital.
Collum said Keller's new CEO will face a variety of challenges.
"Our primary focus in the short-term is physicians," he said. "They're the lifeblood of a hospital, and they determine if we make it or not, so we have to have them on board. We're trying to make our hospital a place where physicians want to take ... patients."
The position is being vacated by Bill Anderson, who has been at the helm since 1999.
Three candidates for the position have been interviewed, one of whom was unable to accept the job because of family obligations, Collum said.
A third candidate, Doug Arnold, 59, originally from Alabama, recently toured the Keller facilities, Collum said. The process has included meeting with the members of the board and administrative staff as well as department managers within the hospital.
Arnold's most recent position was as the CEO for the Northwest Health System in Springdale, Ark. He resigned that post in March of 2010.
Collum said the experience of working with a for-profit hospital organization will provide a degree of expertise needed locally.
"In the health care environment we're in now, in order for us to be financially viable, we need that kind of experience," he said. "The Affordable Care Act is going to be very difficult for us to be financially viable, and we need someone who knows how to deal with that."
The local environment was made even more competitive in 2010 when Coffee Health Group was bought by RegionalCare Hospital Partners, a for-profit hospital organization based in Brentwood, Tenn. As part of the purchase, RegionalCare is expected to invest more than $30 million into the current facilities at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital, recruit additional doctors to the area and build a 250-bed replacement hospital.
Collum said Keller's new CEO will face a variety of challenges.
"Our primary focus in the short-term is physicians," he said. "They're the lifeblood of a hospital, and they determine if we make it or not, so we have to have them on board. We're trying to make our hospital a place where physicians want to take ... patients."
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