Hospital in Ventura Gets a New Leader

A veteran Santa Barbara hospital administrator has been chosen to lead Community Memorial Hospital five months after trustees at the Ventura facility forced the embattled executive director to resign.

The board of trustees announced Wednesday that Gary Wilde, 48, would replace Michael Bakst, who left the hospital in October after an 18-month power struggle with about 100 members of the medical staff.

Wilde “has tremendous people skills,” said Gary Wolfe, board vice chairman. “He greatly impressed not only the trustees, but also the medical staff.”

Wilde, who lives in Ventura, is set to take over as the hospital’s president and chief executive April 5.

He is now chief operating officer of the Cottage Health System in Santa Barbara, where he has worked for more than two decades.

Since 2000, Wilde has been responsible for the daily operations at all three Cottage hospitals, and has been in charge of materials management, information technology and the master plan for new facilities.

At Community Memorial, one of his most important roles will be to oversee completion of a $120-million hospital wing required by state earthquake retrofitting laws, Wolfe said.

“We’ve got a big cloud over the hospital for the next eight years as the deadline approaches,” he said.

“That really has to now be on the front burner for the board and the administration,” he added.

An early task for Wilde will be to settle a lawsuit filed by dissident physicians last year, after trustees unilaterally began to change physician bylaws, seized $250,000 in medical staff funds and imposed a code of conduct and conflict of interest policy opposed by many doctors.

Wolfe said the suit was “very close” to resolution.