Byline: Michael Perrault News Staff Writer
St. Anthony hospitals are launching a nationwide search for a chief executive officer.
Matt Fulton, St. Anthony CEO since 1998, will move into Centura Health's corporate offices June 1 as senior vice president of business development, said Joseph Swedish, president and CEO of Centura.
The state's largest health-care system - with nine hospitals, numerous home-care, senior and hospice services and $1.1 billion in revenue last year - will begin an extensive search next week for Fulton's replacement.
``We really have no one in mind at the moment,'' Swedish said. ``But this, assuredly, will be a nationwide search.''
An interim management team, meanwhile, will be appointed to take over Fulton's duties, a Centura spokeswoman said.
Fulton's successor will step into a job that includes overseeing day-to-day operations, strategic planning, capital improvements and expansions for four of Centura's hospitals.
The CEO also heads Centura's extensive 30-year-old Flight for Life medical helicopter and airplane operations.
As CEO of St. Anthony Health System, Fulton headed the 110-year-old, 500-plus-bed St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver and the 31-year-old, 200-bed St. Anthony North Hospital in Westminster.
St. Anthony hospitals reported in January that charity care climbed 73 percent in fiscal 2001 from the previous year.
St. Anthony Central is one of only two Level I emergency centers in the state, and many uninsured and poor patients use the hospital's ER as their primary source of medical care.
Along with the St. Anthony duties, Fulton oversaw operations at Summit Medical Center in Frisco, the Granby Medical Center and the largest medical helicopter operation in the state.
Previously, from 1991 to 1998, Fulton was vice president of operations for St. Anthony Hospitals.
Fulton said he was interested in moving into a different career path, where he could focus on business development for the Centura corporation.
Fulton's new corporate position will put him in charge of establishing partnerships, joint ventures and other business relationships in communities where the faith-based, nonprofit health system operates.
