Hospital Board Says No Ouster Planned

Members of the board of directors of a publicly run hospital in Lancaster have denied rumors that they were planning to oust the hospital’s interim administrator.

The issue arose when members of the Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center board scheduled a closed-door meeting for Thursday morning to discuss Administrator David Coats’ performance with executives of the Florida-based Hunter Group, a consulting firm. Coats, a Hunter executive, has worked at the hospital since January under the firm’s $400,000 contract with the hospital.

Board members ultimately canceled the closed-door session after The Times and another newspaper complained that it might violate the state’s open meetings law. But in doing so, board members said their concerns were not so serious as to warrant the ouster of Coats or the Hunter Group.