By Lindsey Temple

and Jeff Shultz

A hospital administrator from Holdenville will take over as the new Chief Executive Officer of Pauls Valley General Hospital.

In a special Monday night meeting of the PVGH Hospital Board and officials from St. Anthony’s Hospital, board members and St. Anthony’s announced the hiring of Bridget Cosby as the hospital’s new CEO.

The move comes days before St. Anthony’s will take over the management of PVGH as a management agreement with the Oklahoma City hospital will go into effect February 1.

St. Anthony’s posted the CEO’s position as being open shortly after the management agreement was signed by city officials and St. Anthony’s earlier this month.

Current interim CEO Gayle Sturgis will remain on board until February 27.

“We have a lot of work to do but I am very excited,” said Cosby after the announcement was made.

Cosby comes to PVGH from Holdenville General Hospital, where she served as the CEO and comes from a financial background and a CFO history.

As of September 2011, the 25-bed hospital in Holdenville entered into a similar agreement with St. Anthony’s while Cosby served as the hospital’s CEO.

The decision to hire Cosby came after hospital board members and officials with St. Anthony’s met in executive session to discuss the CEO position.

After coming out of executive session, PVGH Hospital Board members Dennis Green, Loren Cronin, Hugh Vaughn and Kristin Jarman voted unanimously to take St. Anthony’s recommendation to hire Cosby.