CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- MedCath Corporation (Nasdaq: MDTH) announced today that O. Edwin French will retire as president, Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the Board of Directors effective Friday, September 23, 2011. Art Parker will become Chief Executive Officer after serving as Chief Financial Officer, and MedCath Controller Lora Ramsey will become the new Chief Financial Officer. Parker joined MedCath in 2001 after serving in various positions with Bank of America, and he became Executive Vice President and CFO in 2009. Ramsey has served as served as MedCath’s Vice President Controller since 2006.
MedCath also announced today that it has entered into a consulting arrangement with Randy Smith, to be a resource to management regarding MedCath’s hospital operations. Smith is a veteran hospital industry executive who had worked in a senior hospital operations position with Tenet Healthcare Corp.
French has been MedCath’s president and CEO since 2006, after joining the company the previous year as interim chief operating officer. Under his leadership, MedCath received numerous accolades for the high quality care its hospitals provide. MedCath hospitals, for instance, repeatedly ranked among the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care, according to a list compiled by Thomson-Reuters. They received several Excellence Awards from HealthGrades, the leading independent health care ratings organization. And the Lewin Group, a nationally recognized consultant to the health and human service industries, consistently found that MedCath hospitals, when compared to peer hospitals, on average, have a lower in-hospital, risk-adjusted mortality rate for Medicare cardiac cases, shorter lengths of stay for cardiac cases on a severity-adjusted basis and that the hospitals are more likely to discharge patients to their homes rather than another medical facility.
“I would like to thank all the members of the MedCath team,” French said. “Their commitment to patient-focused care distinguished MedCath and, more importantly, it made a real difference to our patients and their families.”
“I had personally asked Ed to become involved in MedCath several years ago, and I appreciate all his hard work during these challenging times,” said John T. Casey, chairman of MedCath’s Board of Directors. “We wish him all the best in retirement.”
“Art and Lora have been invaluable members of the MedCath leadership team, and their promotions will ensure an ongoing continuity to the work of the Strategic Options Committee and the company’s wind-down,” Casey said. “I’m also pleased that Randy will be assisting management in the operations of the hospitals for MedCath. He has a wealth of experience, including a term as chairman of the Federation of American Hospitals, and I know that experience will be beneficial.”
About MedCath
MedCath Corporation, headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is a health care provider focused on high acuity services with the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease being a primary service offering. MedCath owns an interest in and operates four hospitals with a total of 366 licensed beds, located in Arizona, California, Louisiana and Texas.
SOURCE MedCath Corporation
