PMH hires CEO

Purcell Municipal Hospital will have a new chief executive officer soon, the Purcell Public Works Authority learned Monday.

Chris Wright will begin work August 16.

He is currently director of the Neuroscience Service Line at OU Health University of Oklahoma Medical Center, a post held since August 2016.

Wright, an RN, began his medical career in 1984 after receiving his bachelor’s degree in nursing from West Texas State University. He also has a master’s degree in business administration from Colorado State University.

He worked as a critical care staff nurse and travel nurse through 1991 when he joined the staff at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin.

Over the span of more than 12 years, he advanced from ICU/CCU staff nurse to director of critical care and neuroscience services.

In June 2004, he took an interim consulting position in the cardiovascular unit at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.

That was followed by just over 9 years as director of cardiovascular, neuroscience and critical care services at the 268-bed Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, Colo.

That was followed with a stint as associate administrator of the neuroscience and orthopedic service lines at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno, Calif., and interim director of the Neuroscience Institute at The Queens Medical Center in Honolulu.

Those facilities were 771 and 505 beds, respectively.

PWA trustees also approved the sale of land adjacent to the new hospital for a medical office building.

The sale price for the land is $503,275.45.

Closing is anticipated within 120 days with construction starting immediately after closing.

Timeline for the construction is about nine months.

Also approved was a reciprocal easement maintenance agreement with NF Purcell HP, LLC, which will own and manage the medical office building.

Other action by the PWA included:

• approved the $98,329.23 purchase of Envirosight Rover X System and Outpost;
• approved the $49,422.44 purchase of a sewer pipehunter, and
• heard reports from Mary Morris, chief financial officer at PMH, and Jackie Wadley of Wadley EMS.

The city council:

• awarded a $386,152 contract to reconstruct the terminal apron at Purcell Municipal Airport to Ellsworth Construction, LLC, of Tulsa and accepted an FAA grant of $438,602 for the project;
• approved a resolution adopting the McClain County multi-jurisdictional multi-hazard mitigation plan;
• denied a zoning variance request for a medical marijuana grow facility at 126 S. Canadian, and
• appointed Chris Hurt to a seat on the Purcell Parks & Recreation Board and Lena Martin to a seat on the Purcell Cemetery Board.