RATON, New Mexico (STPNS) -- Four more applicants for the chief executive officer position at Miners' Colfax Medical Center will be interviewed this week by the board of the Raton hospital.

Two applicants were interviewed Nov. 8, after which the board decided to interview the remaining applicants on the list of recommendations given to the board by a search committee that narrowed down the field from the original 47 applicants.

The board initially planned to interview four of the applicants Nov. 8, but two pulled out of consideration. Of the remaining six on the search committee's list, one pulled out of consideration and another has told the board he will not be available to interview until next month. MCMC Board Chairman Roy Fernandez on Saturday said he does not think the board will interview that applicant before making its decision on what names to send to the governor, who will select the new CEO for the state-run hospital.



Fernandez said he expects the board to select its recommended applicants - likely picking at least two names in a prioritized order - in a week or so after completing the interviews by the end of this week. The board is scheduled to interview one of the applicants Thursday night and three others Saturday morning.

The two applicants interviewed Nov. 8 by the MCMC board are:

? Albert Esparsen, who has been the administrative director of clinical operations at the University of Texas Health Center in Tyler, Texas, the last two years. He spent three years before that running his own business, Physician Support Services, in Roswell, where he had previously worked as a regional director for the Public Health Division of the New Mexico Department of Health.

Esparsen, who has a doctorate in health care administration, a master's degree in public administration and a bachelor's in public health, also had a two-year stint as health and senior services administrator for the city of Midland, Texas. He has spent the last 17 years working in the health care field for public and private entities.

? William Kleefisch, who since 2003 has been the chief operating officer of the Albuquerque-based New Mexico Medical Review Association, an independent health care consulting association. Prior to that, he was the president and principal consultant of a private health care consulting business in Albuquerque.

During his almost 35 years in the health care industry, Kleefisch has been chief executive officer or chief operating officer at three hospitals in Hawaii, Mississippi and Albuquerque for a combined total of six years, and has also worked as regional executive director in Mississippi for the U.S. Department of Defense Health Services. Kleefisch has a master's degree in management and a bachelor's in business administration.

Of the four applicants the MCMC board is to interview this week, two asked the hospital not to release their names. Those applicants are from Michigan and Wisconsin. The other two applicants are:

? Michael Carter, who has been chief executive officer at the Southeast Arizona Medical Center in Douglas, Ariz., for almost four and a half years. It has been his first hospital job after holding vice president and dean positions at small colleges in North Carolina, Virginia and Arizona for 20 years.

Carter holds a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy studies, and master's degrees in health services administration and business administration.

? Jim LeBrun, who has worked three years as the administrator for Desert Cardiothoracic Surgeons in Mesa, Ariz. He has also worked as administrator for three other physician clinics, and has served for a combined total of 12 years as chief executive officer at three hospitals in North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming.

LeBrun, who has a bachelor's degree in business administration and has completed a university's "executive program in health care financial management," has worked for 28 years in the health care industry.

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.

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