Owner of North Las Vegas hospital prevails in proxy fight

Single Sign-On: You can use Facebook account to log in to LasVegasSun.com. (We will use your first and last name from your profile.)
Trusted Commenting: Facebook connected users automatically become trusted commenters.

Thursday, Oct. 12, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -- Tenet Healthcare Corp., the No. 2 U.S. hospital chain, on Wednesday defeated an effort by dissident shareholders to oust Chief Executive Jeffrey Barbakow and two other directors.

Tenet owns Lake Mead Hospital in North Las Vegas.

Tenet said shareholders at its annual meeting voted for the company's slate of directors. A rival slate backed by Florida businessman M. Lee Pearce lost by what the company called an overwhelming margin.

The dissidents claimed Tenet executives are overpaid and haven't done enough to boost the firm's profit and stock price.

But Tenet said it sold 20 weak hospitals in the most recent fiscal year. This and other management initiatives helped boost Tenet's profit for the quarter ended Aug. 31 to $154 million from $128 million a year earlier, Tenet noted.