That’s the report given by Gordon Carver Jr., chairman of the trustees, on Monday. He said the board had “interviewed quite a few [candidates] and we’ve got a few more coming in.”

The majority of candidates interviewed thus far, Carver said, have been from outside North Carolina. But, he said, “We’ve got a good field of candidates.”

The board of trustees has been involved in a national search to name a new hospital leader since former CEO Craig James left in September. James announced in mid-August that he would leave, after six years at Person Memorial Hospital, to take a position with Mountain States Health Care in Tennessee.

Otis Wilson has been serving as interim CEO at Person Memorial since James’s departure. He served for 10 years as president and CEO of Grace Healthcare System in Morganton. He led that system’s merger with Valdese General Hospital in 2000 to form Blue Ridge Health Care System, and then served as CEO of Blue Ridge until 2001.

Wilson holds an undergraduate degree from Furman University and a masters of healthcare administration from Georgia State University. He also holds a master of divinity degree from Duke University.

“Otis is a superb hospital administrator,” Carver said upon naming him interim CEO last fall, “and we are delighted to have the benefit of his expertise and leadership during this transition.”

Carver said this week that Wilson had indeed done a superb job during the past few months.

“We’d like to keep him,” Carver said. “He’s doing a great job.”

Because he has, Carver added, “We’ve not been in a rush” to hire a permanent CEO. “We’re trying to find the best person for the job.”

Wilson had made it clear when he first agreed to the interim position that he would not seek to make it permanent.

Carver said this week that the building and renovation project at the hospital, which began in 2005, was moving along according to schedule.

The $13 million project was originally set to include an expansion of the PMH surgical suite and emergency department, a private family waiting room and additional recovery rooms in the surgical suite. Carver said that portion of the project is almost complete, except for the waiting area.

An urgent care clinic will offer services in addition to the current emergency room services once that department has been expanded. Carver said that “will be the next thing to finish.”

The hospital’s rehabilitation services and respiratory care services have been expanded and specialty clinics were moved to the first floor of the hospital annex.

The intensive care unit at the hospital is also being renovated, making all six beds private. Carver said this week that, “The ICU will be the last thing. We hope to finish it by the end of 2008.”

If so, he said, the renovation and building project will be completed on schedule, hopefully just as the new CEO is getting settled in.

While work continues on the hospital, access to the Emergency Department has been moved back to its original location at the north entrance to the hospital.

The south entrance, which had been the main point of entry while work on the north side of the hospital was underway, is now blocked as work on the PMH renovation and expansion project continues.