LEWISTON — Central Maine Healthcare officials named a new president for the Rumford and Bridgton hospitals on Thursday, five months after the previous president resigned amid turmoil between medical staff at the hospitals and the parent organization.

Bridgton Hospital is part of Central Maine HealthCare, which also owns Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston and Rumford Hospital.

Central Maine Healthcare announced that Peter J. Wright, 46, will take over as president in mid-March.

“I feel strongly that the key part of ‘community hospitals’ is ‘community,’ ” Wright said in a statement released by the health care organization. “We are there to serve, and it is critically important that we are an integral part of every aspect of what happens locally.”

Wright has served as president and CEO of Valley Regional Healthcare in Claremont, New Hampshire, for the past six years, Central Maine Healthcare said. Before that he served as chief operating officer at Littleton Regional Hospital in New Hampshire and as senior director of planning, development and medical group operations at Copley Health Systems in Morrisville, Vermont.

Wright will take over from acting administrators Jill Rollins at Bridgton Hospital and Becky Hall at Rumford Hospital. Both will return to their roles as nursing directors.

Former President R. David Frum resigned in August. He had served as head of Bridgton Hospital since 2010 and head of Rumford Hospital since 2011.

He was one of the last senior leaders left from Central Maine Healthcare’s previous administration, before CEO Jeff Brickman took over.

Frum’s resignation came during a summer of turmoil among the hospitals and Central Maine Healthcare. In the weeks before he resigned, medical staff at Bridgton and Rumford both voted no confidence in Brickman. Soon after, medical staff at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Central Maine Healthcare’s flagship hospital, also voted no confidence in Brickman.


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