Three candidates seek UMC post

A retired commander of the U.S. Naval Medical Center in San Diego and a California-based medical center consultant have joined Kathy Silver as the candidates vying for University Medical Center's top job, Clark County officials said Tuesday.

The three will interview with the hospital's administrative staff, union representatives and heads of the University of Nevada School of Medicine early next week, Clark County spokesman Dan Kulin said.

The interviews come nearly 13 months after former University Medical Center CEO Lacy Thomas was fired.

The candidates include Silver, UMC's interim chief executive officer; William T. Foley, interim chief executive officer of Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, Calif.; and Brian G. Brannman, a decorated former high-ranking Naval officer who at one time was director of the Navy Medical Services Corps.

Brannman, who retired last year, made the local news in North Carolina in March when a television station reported he claimed to have smallpox while on a US Airways flight arriving in Charlotte from New Orleans.

According to a Charlotte Observer story, more than 100 passengers were stuck on a plane at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport for nearly three hours after a man on the flight announced that he had "been exposed to smallpox."

The Observer quoted a US Airways spokeswoman as saying that as the plane taxied into the gate, the passenger told others on the plane, "I've been exposed, you've all been exposed."

The man was evaluated by doctors at Carolinas Medical Center. He showed no signs of the disease, the paper said.

The Observer did not identify the passenger, but WBTV News in Charlotte identified him as Brannman.

"He (Brannman) seems to have a reasonable explanation for what happened there,'' Kulin said.

He said Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine is expected to submit her pick for UMC's CEO to the Clark County Commission in March.