NASHVILLE, TN – Veteran healthcare executive Richard Salerno will rejoin the leadership team at Essent Healthcare, Inc. as senior vice president of operations, company officials announced today.

Salerno, who has been serving as interim CEO of Essent’s Paris Regional Medical Center in Texas, will move into his new post May 1. He was Essent’s senior operations officer from 1999 to 2002 before moving on to hospital turnaround company FTI Cambio Health Solutions.

As senior vice president of operations, he will be responsible for Paris Regional as well as Merrimack Valley Hospital in Massachusetts. He also will focus on the company’s quality improvement efforts and other corporate initiatives.

“I’ve had the good fortune to be able to work closely with Richard on several ventures in the past as well as in his current role in Paris,” said W. Hudson Connery Jr., president and CEO of Essent. “His leadership skills will be very valuable as we continue to build Essent into a premier hospital operator.”

Salerno has amassed more than two decades of diverse healthcare operations experience. He served for 12 years as a hospital CEO in the HCA/HealthTrust/Columbia system in Austin, Texas and Charlotte, N.C., before joining Essent for the first time in 1999.

“I am excited about coming home to Essent,” said Salerno. “We’re staking out a leadership position in quality measurement and reporting and I look forward to working with our physicians and other stakeholders to build a company that delivers the best care possible at all times.”