Chief Executive of Santa Ana Health Firm Resigns

Nine months after guiding the merger of his Santa Ana-based Tokos Medical Corp. with a competitor in Georgia, Robert F. Byrnes is departing as chief executive of the combined health-care company.

Byrnes’ resignation was announced Tuesday by Matria Healthcare Inc., the Marietta, Ga., company formed in March from the combination of Tokos and Georgia-based Healthdyne Maternity Management.

Matria, which provides home care to women with high-risk pregnancies, also said it will lay off corporate and field staff by the end of the month, but declined to say how many Santa Ana employees will be affected.

The company has eliminated about 300 jobs since the merger, said Donald Millard, Matria’s chief financial officer. Tokos and Healthdyne employed a total of about 1,300 people before the merger.

Millard declined to specify how many additional employees will be laid off, but said the number would be “significantly less” than 300.

Last December, Tokos employed between 350 and 400 people at its former Santa Ana headquarters. After Byrnes announced that Matria would be based in Marietta, the home of Healthdyne, he said the new company would retain “substantial operations” in Santa Ana.

In the company’s release, Byrnes said his resignation “has been an extremely difficult decision for me. However, with the additional actions announced today, I believe that the consolidation of Healthdyne and Tokos is essentially complete.”

Matria said it has formed a search committee to seek a new chief executive. In the interim, the company has created an office of the president that will be run by Byrnes, Chairman Parker H. Petit and Millard, the chief financial officer.

Separately, Matria also said Tuesday that it plans to form an alliance with Apria Healthcare Group Inc., the Costa Mesa home health-care company, to provide women’s health services to managed care organizations across the country.