Nurse to head UCI hospital

A registered nurse who spent 13 years as one of UCI Medical Center’s top administrators was appointed Wednesday to head the hospital.

Maureen Zehntner, 59, has been interim chief executive since 2005. In her new job she will earn $555,000 a year, along with bonuses and a car allowance. Among other duties, Zehntner will oversee the completion of UC Irvine’s new $635-million hospital, expected to open next year.

Zehntner was the medical center’s chief operating officer from 1996 to 2005, a period during which the hospital faced a series of scandals. In 1999, the university found that the medical school’s Willed Body Program had sold parts of cadavers, misappropriated money and conducted unauthorized autopsies. In 2004 UCI officials learned that Dr. Hoda Anton-Culver had misspent as much as $2.3 million in state and federal funds on unauthorized software instead of cancer research.

Although some have criticized Zehntner’s appointment, saying she belongs to the hospital’s old guard, officials said she had helped to improve the medical center.

“She was in no way involved with the past ills of the institution,” said Dr. David N. Bailey, vice chancellor for health affairs. “She was the one that led us into the new era.”

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-- Tony Barboza