Interim CEO steps in at Marathon hospital

Amid talks of a partnership between Fishermen’s Community Hospital and Baptist Health South Florida, Marathon’s hospital is under the direction of an interim chief executive officer.

David Faulkner stepped in as interim chief executive Thursday, replacing Hal Leftwich, who Faulkner said resigned after five years in the position.

Faulkner’s been employed for 20 years by Tennessee-based Quorum Health Resources and worked most recently as CEO of Fleming County Hospital in Flemingsburg, Ky. Leftwich was also a Quorum employee.

Quorum was selected by the hospital board in 2010 to manage the nonprofit Fishermen’s. It no longer would should Baptist and Fishermen’s become affiliated.

“We employed Quorum to provide management services and that will continue for a period while we sort out exactly how to structure the affiliation with Baptist,” Peter Chapman, president of the Fisherman’s Community Hospital Board of Trustees, has said.

Baptist is the largest health-care organization in the region and the partnership, slated for 2017, could mean increased services at the community-owned hospital beginning next year.

Illinois native Faulkner said he’s getting the lay of the land and he’s “thrilled to be here” in Marathon.

“I look forward to working with the board, physicians and employees of the hospital as they continue to navigate the shifting environment that hospitals face today,” he said.

That shifting environment has been discussed as the reason Fishermen’s board sought out Baptist.

“It has become close to impossible for a small, freestanding hospital to survive in the environment we’re in,” Wayne Brackin, chief operating officer of Baptist, has said.

As the partnership progresses, Baptist will have its management team, Chapman said.

Fishermen’s is the second Florida Keys hospital to recently hire a new CEO. North Carolina native David Clay took over as chief executive of the for-profit Lower Keys Medical Center in Key West Monday after former CEO Nicki Will quit in July in the face of mounting criticism over patient care and billing practices. She was with the hospital for 13 years.

This story was originally published December 2, 2016 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Interim CEO steps in at Marathon hospital."