Psychiatric Firm Names New Officers

Comprehensive Care Corp., Newport Beach, has added two executive positions in a reorganization designed to help the company keep pace with future growth, officials said Tuesday.

Richard A. Santoni, 42, was appointed president of the company, which offers treatment for psychiatric, alcohol and drug problems. W. James Nicol, 41, was named vice chairman. B. Lee Karns, chairman of the company since 1972, will remain chairman and chief executive officer.

Santoni said that Comp Care, which owns 15 hospitals and has contracts with another 125 nationwide, has been expanding at a rate of about 20% a year, and wants to maintain that pace. In the restructuring, Santoni said, corporate divisions that previously reported directly to Karns now will be combined into two groups, reporting to either Santoni or Nicol, in the hope of improving coordination. Santoni, a psychologist who has been with the company almost 10 years, will be chief operating officer for contract and hospital operations, human resources and communications, including advertising. Nicol, who joined the company in 1973, will be the chief administrative officer, responsible for financing. His duties will include scouting corporate growth opportunities and overseeing the firm’s joint program with Voluntary Hospitals of America, a national association of hospitals based in Dallas.

For the first six months of fiscal 1985, ended last Nov. 30, Comprehensive Care earned $8.4 million, up 25% from $6.7 million in the equivalent period of fiscal 1984.