HCA plans a third LV hospital

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2001 | 11:25 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Possibly signaling the worst is behind HCA-The Healthcare Company, co-founder Dr. Thomas F. Frist Jr. on Monday relinquished the title of chief executive officer to the man he called out of retirement to help turn around the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain.

"We are still a team," company President Jack O. Bovender Jr., 55, said in a telephone interview from company headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., after his promotion was announced. He formerly was chief operating officer for the company.

Bovender said Frist will continue to be involved in corporate strategy as chairman of HCA's board of directors.

"From Wall Street's perspective this is not a big surprise and probably more accurately reflects the roles that each man has been providing to the company for the past few years," said James Baker, an analyst with SunTrust Equitable Securities in Nashville.

Bovender's forte is daily operations; Frist's is the big picture.

Both have been tested since Frist called Bovender, a 31-year health care industry veteran and former HCA executive, back from retirement in 1997 to help restructure the company and deal with a huge federal and state fraud investigation.

Last month, HCA announced it will pay the federal government more than $840 million in criminal fines and civil penalties in the largest governmental fraud settlement in history.

Bovender said the company, which has closed or consolidated more than 100 hospitals since 1997, will begin plans to build two more hospitals in existing markets -- Las Vegas and Denver.

HCA is already a big operator in the Las Vegas hospital market with its Sunrise and MountainView hospitals and associated clinics. Local HCA officials could not be reached for comment on the company's expansion plans in Las Vegas.