By VICKI URBANIK

Community Health Systems has announced eight members of the new board of trustees that will govern Porter hospital.

Of the eight, five are physicians. The board members are:

•Dr. Sudhakar Garlapati, a family practitioner who has been named the new board chairman. Garlapati previously served on the hospital board when the hospital was county-owned. He was appointed by the Porter County Commissioners in July of 2003 to fill the remaining two years of a vacant board seat. When the board term expired in 2005, Garlapati did not seek reappointment.

•Dr. James Turk, otolaryngology.

•Dr. Keith Atassi, cardiology.

•Dr. Mary Klein, medical oncology. Klein was a member of the county-hospital task force that searched for, and negotiated with, a new hospital buyer last year.

•Dr. Joseph Venditti, thoracic surgery. Venditti most recently has served as president of the Porter Hospital Foundation, a non-profit group that raises funds for hospital purchases and programs.

•Janet Brown, dean of the school of nursing at Valparaiso University.

•Mike Berta, superintendent of the Portage Community Schools.

•David Rose, Porter County president of Horizon Bank. Rose previously served on a commissioner-appointed committee that recommended a sale or merger of the county hospital. He also was among those who spoke out in support of the sale of the county hospital at the public hearing in April.

Two additional board members will be named in the near future, said Porter hospital spokesperson Robin Carlascio.

Dr. Jac Cooper, president of Porter’s medical staff who also served on the county-hospital task force, and Dr. Douglas Mazurek, vice president of the medical staff, will serve as ex-officio members of the board.

The agreement that was forged between the county and CHS prior to the hospital sale stipulated that the new hospital board must consist of all Porter County residents. In addition, physicians must make up 50 percent of the board; if the medical staff opts to make the hospital a syndicated hospital, allowing them to invest in the facility, then physicians will make up 60 percent of the board.

Carlascio said the syndication option has not been decided yet.

The first hospital board meeting is expected to take place in June, Carlascio said. Because the hospital is now privately owned, the board meetings will not be public as they always were.

The eight hospital board members were announced today by Jonathan Nalli, the new interim Chief Executive Officer of Porter. Nalli was named the new CEO following the recent resignation of Ron Winger.

Nalli said he is pleased with the selection of board members and equally pleased the process was completed in a timely fashion.

“We have a talented group of physicians and residents of this community who are eager to serve on this board,” he said in a statement.

“This is a group of individuals who feels passionately about Porter and who want the very best in health care for the residents of this community.”

Posted 5/25/2007