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Hospital losing top official

North Bay Hospital losing top official

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published February 14, 2006

NEW PORT RICHEY - After leading Morton Plant North Bay Hospital for seven years, chief operating officer Bill Jennings is leaving for bigger turf.

Jennings' resignation, effective March 7, comes as the nonprofit hospital embarks on the early design and engineering stages of an expansion at 6600 Madison St.

That and other medical advancements are among the accomplishments colleagues credit to the man at the helm of the hospital since Morton Plant Mease Health Care bought it in 1999.

"He, along with Morton Plant Mease, has been the best thing that ever happened to that hospital," said lawyer Ken Misemer, a longtime hospital board member. "He's one of those fellows who instantly fit in with the community and became a real asset, not just to the hospital, but to the community itself."

Jennings, 38, has accepted a position as chief operating officer and executive vice president of the 582-bed St. Mary's Health Center in St. Louis. He was on vacation Monday and could not be reached.

The move up from the 122-bed North Bay doesn't surprise Jennings' boss.

"We thought we might have him for five years," Dunedin-based Morton Plant Mease CEO Philip Beauchamp said. "We've been fortunate to have him for seven years. It's the right move for him at this time in his career."

At North Bay, the marathon runner and father of two oversaw ER expansions, the addition of cardiac catheterization, sleep disorder labs, and spinal and orthopedic surgery.

In recent years, the hospital launched its own ambulance service and became the first Pasco hospital to replace X-ray films with a Web-based, digital library.

But North Bay was frustrated by the state's refusal to allow it to move its beds to the Trinity area, while Community Hospital was granted the relocation.

Now the nonprofit hospital is considering an expansion on its current site, an effort that will not be slowed by Jennings' departure, Beauchamp said.

North Bay's director of nursing, Kathy Wicker, has been named interim administrator. Beauchamp said the national search for Jennings' replacement will take three to six months.

[Last modified February 14, 2006, 02:45:31]