RATON, New Mexico (STPNS) -- Four applicants seeking to become the new chief executive officer of Miners' Colfax Medical Center will be interviewed by the Raton hospital's board of trustees next month.

The four finalists - two from New Mexico, one from North Carolina and one from Minnesota - were selected by a search committee from a field of 47 applicants who submitted résumés in response to MCMC's job posting.

According to a MCMC news release Monday, "All candidates have extensive backgrounds in providing leadership in a rural healthcare system."



"We had a really good applicant pool to choose from," said MCMC Interim CEO Albino Martinez, who is the hospital's chief financial officer and not an applicant for the permanent CEO position. "Each applicant has a wide variety of skills and experience that they would be able to bring to MCMC."

The names of the finalists and their current positions were not available Monday.

The search committee had nine members, including MCMC staff, doctors and community members. The committee reviewed applicants from 20 different states, as well as Canada.

It will be the board's decision as to which applicants' names to send to Gov. Bill Richardson for his selection of a CEO for the state-run hospital.

The state-set salary range for the MCMC CEO position is $83,000 to $187,000. The board is expected to make a salary recommendation to the governor.

The MCMC CEO oversees 225 employees and a $22 million annual budget for a 33-bed acute-care facility and 47-bed long-term care facility. MCMC's advertisement for the position said the CEO should have a graduate degree in healthcare administration, public health administration or business administration, and should have at least five years of experience working in a healthcare facility.

The CEO job opened up when Don Holl resigned from the position in July after four years on the job.

Meanwhile, MCMC has awarded the management of the emergency room to Dr. Misbah Zmily, who has run it in the past, but had his contract terminated by Holl following a clash between the two earlier this year. The terminated contract ended earlier this month and MCMC rebid the contract in anticipation of that.

MCMC also has hired three doctors from out of town to work the emergency room in collaboration with Zmily's contract. Martinez called the hospital's new arrangements the "first steps in providing 24/7 coverage to the emergency room." The three physicians who have been hired by MCMC are Joseph Browne, Donald Belknap and Patrick Thompson. Additionally, Zmily has hired his brother Dr. Hammam Zmily to participate in the emergency-room rotation.

MCMC this week also announced the hospital is working with Shirley Weisz, a New Mexico Medical Review Association consultant, to improve the quality of patient care.