NATCHEZ — Nearly three years after news of financial troubles sent the previous management of Natchez Regional Medical Center packing, the county-owned hospital has a new, permanent, chief executive officer.

Bill Heburn will begin work Nov. 1, replacing interim CEO Lana Morgan, who has filled the seat for 10 months. A contracted management company operated the hospital for more than a year after long-time management group Quorum Health Resources was fired.

Heburn isn’t new to Natchez. He served as administrator of Natchez Community Hospital — then owned by Humana Company Inc. — from 1974 to 1976.

“Natchez is a wonderful town, and that’s what has intrigued me about coming back,” Heburn said.

Currently, Heburn is working at a hospital in Galesburg, Ill., on a temporary assignment set to end in October in affiliation with Community Health Systems.

Prior to that, he was chief executive officer of Trinity Medical Center, a 560-bed hospital in Birmingham, Ala.

Throughout his career, Heburn has worked in senior management positions with a variety of hospital management companies, including Health Management Associates and Essent Healthcare.

Though his work up to this point has been at for-profit hospitals, Heburn said the transition to a non-profit, county-owned hospital won’t be difficult.

“Everything has got to make a profit,” he said. “It’s not really any different. You focus on the community and care first, and make sure you develop cash flow to build buildings, raise wages and improve benefits. It takes a profit to do that.”

The Natchez Regional board of trustees began actively seeking a permanent CEO in May, board attorney Walter Brown said.

An original list of 40 to 50 applicants was narrowed down to a final four and finally to Heburn.

Heburn will be able to determine the hospital staff — with board approval — after his arrival, Brown said.

Brown said the wide variety of experience Heburn brings to the hospital was appealing to the board.

“He knows both sides of the hospital sector,” Brown said. “And he wanted to come back to a small hospital again.”

For Heburn, the goal was simply to return to Natchez, he said.

“We’ve known about it for so doggone long,” he said. “There are so many families there we know, and we’ve been very close.

“I see Natchez as one of those communities that just sort of tugs at you. I was lucky enough to be there when the medical community was strong and it was a wonderful place to be.”

Heburn said his first goal is simply to get to town and get to know Natchez Regional. And, in a NRMC press release, he said he would start work immediately on physician relationships with the hospital and physician recruitment to Natchez.

“There is no reason why we can’t bring these physicians and others to Natchez because it is such a wonderful place to live and practice medicine as the community has so much potential,” he said. “It is a truly special place not only in Mississippi but known throughout the South as an extraordinary community”

Heburn graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a master’s degree in management and from Western Kentucky University with a degree in business management. He has served in hospitals in England, Mexico, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Natchez Regional board member Gwen Ball maintained contact with Heburn and his wife JoAnn after they left Natchez and said she was excited to have him back.

“Bill was very interested in returning to Natchez because of the many relationships he had with physicians and other healthcare personnel in the Natchez area,” Ball said in a press release. “We are very fortunate that Bill wanted to return to Natchez after many years of successful assignments in hospital management across the South.”

Though Natchez Regional is a county-owned hospital, Brown declined to release Heburn’s salary, citing confidentiality.

Public hospitals are excluded from the Mississippi Public Records Act, except for board meeting minutes and financial reports.

Brown pointed to the fact that Natchez Regional has a local competitor in Natchez Community Hospital, saying releasing salary information would give the competitor an advantage.