HOSPITAL DIRECTORS PICK CEO LES WONG PREVIOUSLY INTERIM EXEC OFFICER.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Antelope Valley Hospital's directors named Les Wong as the medical facility's chief executive officer after his six-month service as interim CEO.

Under the new title, Wong will earn the same salary of $299,000 that he made as interim CEO.

``We were going to do a search, but we just feel Les is doing a really good job,'' director June Snow said. ``He's had a six-month run at it, and he has really significant plans to turn the hospital around financially and is beginning to show that these plans are working.''

``I think he's really changing the culture at the hospital,'' she said. ``We are taking corporate integrity very seriously. We are valuing our employees at a different level than we ever have before.''

The board voted 4-0 at Wednesday's meeting to name Wong as CEO. Director Dr. Abdallah Farrukh was absent. Director Steve Fox said the board will re-evaluate Wong's performance in the next six months.

Wong was named interim CEO in February, replacing former CEO Mathew Abraham, who was ousted by the board. Wong had previously been the hospital's chief financial officer.

Wong said he will continue working on turning the hospital around financially. The hospital ended the fiscal year in June with a $5.7 million loss, the first loss in eight years, but is projecting to end the current fiscal year with a $2 million surplus, he said.

``We have financial issues that we are trying to take care of,'' Wong said. ``We need to fix our usage of the high cost of traveling nurses by hiring more nurses.''

``We need to fix our length-of-stay issue. Patients can be released quicker, of course appropriately, freeing up beds so patients waiting in the emergency department can get a bed,'' he said.

Wong, a 58-year-old Lancaster resident, has no employment contract as CEO, unlike Abraham's situation.

``I view myself as an employee. I will work here until someone says I don't need to be here,'' he said. ``I'm here for the long run to help bring about the corrections that we need to do this year and build a new hospital in the next five years in Palmdale.''

Antelope Valley Hospital is embroiled in a legal dispute with Abraham over his employment contract.

Hospital directors in August denied a $2 million wrongful termination claim filed by Abraham, opening the way for Abraham to sue the hospital in civil court.

The board also voted to indemnify four of the five directors who were named in the claim - Snow, Farrukh, Dr. Don Parazo, and Deborah Rice - should a lawsuit be filed.

Abraham's claim contends his ouster was retaliatory and the result of Abraham ``questioning, investigating and reporting unlawful and/or unethical conduct'' by hospital directors.

Hospital officials denied the charges, saying claim's charges were ``absolutely false.''

The hospital said Abraham was fired for failing to follow the hospital district's bidding process in selecting the firm to manage the district's retirement funds, making misrepresentations concerning the company chosen to administer a retirement plan, destroying computer files, failing to disclose transactions with third parties that posed conflicts of interest, failing to obtain board approval for expenditures over policy limits and failing to return district property on demand.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com