Following its acquisition by LifePoint Health this week, St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Ga., has named David Koontz as CEO.
Koontz, 57, was initially hired by LifePoint in September 2015 as a transition executive. He replaces Kirk Wilson, who was appointed interim CEO at St. Francis in April 2015.
Previously, Koontz was a healthcare consultant and served as senior vice president of strategy and business development at CHI St. Luke's Health in Houston.
The leadership changes at St. Francis come after a year of hospital board efforts to find a new owner. The hospital could not pay its debts and was investigated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for accounting irregularities, Modern Healthcare reported.
As part of the purchase, LifePoint Health, based in Brentwood, Tenn., assumed St. Francis' debts, including a $210 million HUD-backed mortgage, giving the hospital a clean balance sheet.
