Troubled health company's new CFO targeting growth. (People).

FOUNTAIN View Inc., the troubled Burbank-based health care company, has named John Harrison chief financial officer, a move that completes a management shakeup.

Harrison arrives as the company tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Three other new senior management executives, including Chief Executive Boyd Hendrickson, have been hired since the bankruptcy filing last October.

The Burbank-based company, which operates 43 skilled nursing and six assisted living facilities in California and Texas, got hit last year with a hike in liability insurance rates and a dispute with the federal government over Medicare. That prompted it to default on over $200 million in debt incurred after a 1998 merger. It also was hit with a $6.1 million judgment resulting from the death of a resident at one of its homes.

Currently, Fountain View is appealing the judgment while also discussing settlement agreements with the plaintiffs, Harrison said.

Hendrickson said Fountain View's operating results were ahead of target for the first quarter and he foresees coming out of bankruptcy protection at the end of the first quarter of 2003. "I think we are on track for about nine months," he said.

In the future, Harrison said the company is looking to grow through "selective acquisitions."

"We have a solid management team, which is a good way to get things off the ground. Our cash flow is looking good and in the future, we hope to see that continue," he said.

Previously, Harrison, 42, spent 19 years at Beverly Enterprises Inc., the Fort Smith, Ark.-based long-term care firm with more than 500 facilities in 38 states. He most recently held the post of vice president-finance of its Beverly Care Alliance subsidiary.

Harrison, who is a graduate of Old Dominion University in Virginia, is married with two boys, ages 7 and 11.