Redding Medical Center Names New Director of Cardiovascular Program, Appoints New Hospital CEO.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

REDDING, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 22, 2003

Redding Medical Center announced today that it has appointed a nationally recognized heart specialist as the medical director of its cardiovascular program and a veteran hospital executive as its new chief executive officer, as it continues to rebuild its heart program and position itself to meet current and future health care needs of the communities it serves.

Satyendra Giri, M.D., M.P.H., comes to Redding Medical Center from his most recent position as director of the interventional cardiology medicine division as well as co-director of the vascular imaging institute at the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. He also served as assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center.

Redding Medical Center, a 269-bed hospital owned by a subsidiary of Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE:THC), also announced that Candace L. Markwith has been named its new chief executive officer, effective immediately. A 25-year hospital executive, Markwith, 54, comes to Redding Medical Center from Tenet's 182-bed Suburban Medical Center in Paramount, Calif., where she was chief executive officer.

Dr. Giri, 40, is board certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine and interventional cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine as well as board certified in nuclear cardiology by the Certification Board of Nuclear Cardiology. He is a national speaker on heart disease topics and has published more than 150 articles on various cardiac issues for peer-review publications. He is also the author of 11 book chapters on heart disease and has been the principal clinical investigator in many intervention trials.

Before joining the staff at the University of Texas Medical School, he was a senior clinical fellow at the Brigham & Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, completing fellowships in cardiac catherization and angiography, interventional cardiology, vascular medicine/peripheral interventions and magnetic resonance imaging and angiography. He also served for three years as Harvard's associate director of the angiographic core laboratory.

Originally trained in London at the Royal College of Physicians, Dr. Giri is a native of Nepal who came to the United States in 1993. He received a master's degree in public health in clinical trial design/biostatistics from the University of Connecticut and then completed his training at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2000.

"We are proud that a cardiologist of Dr. Giri's stature will lead our heart program and assemble a new team of cardiac specialists at Redding Medical Center," said Stephen L. Newman, M.D., chief executive officer of Tenet California. "Dr. Giri and his new team will reinvigorate and rebuild these essential services at Redding so that people in that area have access to the excellent, compassionate cardiac care they need."

As chief executive officer at Redding, Markwith succeeds Hal Chilton, who is transferring to a new position with Tenet California's regional office in Santa Ana.

Previously, Markwith served for four years as chief operating officer of Tenet's 232-bed Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, Calif., and for seven years as chief operating officer of Tenet's 84-bed Twin Cities Community Hospital in Templeton, Calif. Markwith holds a doctorate in pharmacy from the University of the Pacific and began her health care career as a hospital pharmacist.

"Candace Markwith brings an exceptional clinical and management background to this important position," Newman said. "She is absolutely the right person to help Redding Medical Center regain its position as a trusted provider of quality health care in the communities it serves."

Redding Medical Center is part of Tenet California, the state's largest hospital system. It has become a major regional health care provider serving the far north of California. Its expanded facilities in recent years have included a new four-story patient tower with a rooftop heliport as well as all-new emergency facilities and critical-care and progressive-care units.

Tenet Healthcare Corporation, through its subsidiaries, owns and operates 114 acute care hospitals with 27,743 beds and numerous related health care services. Tenet and its subsidiaries employ approximately 116,500 people serving communities in 16 states. Tenet's name reflects its core business philosophy: the importance of shared values among partners -- including employees, physicians, insurers and communities -- in providing a full spectrum of health care. Tenet can be found on the World Wide Web at www.tenethealth.com.

Certain statements in this release may constitute forward-looking statements. They are based on management's current expectations and could be affected by numerous factors and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Certain of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's transition report on Form 10-K for the 7-month period ended Dec. 31, 2002 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Do not rely on any forward-looking statement, as we cannot predict or control many of the factors that ultimately may affect our ability to achieve the results estimated. We make no promise to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of changes in underlying factors, new information, future events or otherwise.

Note to editors: Digital photos of Dr. Satyendra Giri and Candace L. Markwith are available by email on request. Please call Maria Martinez in Tenet's Corporate Communications department at 805-563-6975.