ILWACO, Wash. — Ocean Beach Hospital CEO Kendall Sawa will be the new chief executive officer for Providence Seaside Hospital in Seaside in January.

Sawa is an employee of PeaceHealth, a Vancouver-based nonprofit Catholic hospital system that runs hospitals and clinics in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. He has worked at Ocean Beach Hospital since October 2012, under a “management agreement” that allowed PeaceHealth to take over day-to-day operation of the financially distressed public hospital.

Originally from Canada, Sawa is a married father of two, and a registered nurse. In 1997, he moved to Alaska to take a job as a staff nurse at the PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center. During his 15 years in Ketchikan, Sawa gradually climbed the ladder, working as a house supervisor, nurse manager and director of acute care services. For his last five years in Alaska, he served as the regional vice president for patient care services. He also briefly served as interim CEO at Wrangel Medical Center in Alaska before moving his family to the Long Beach Peninsula in 2012.

Sawa’s contract with OBH is set to expire at the end of this year, but he said that wasn’t a factor in his decision to leave.

“I wasn’t necessarily out there looking for something else. I felt secure in my role (at OBH) beyond the existence of a management contract,” Sawa said. “… I knew about the opportunity and when I received encouragement to consider it, it made me want to learn more about it.”

Like PeaceHealth, Providence is a nonprofit, Catholic healthcare system. According to the Providence website, it is the third-largest not-for-profit healthcare system in the U.S., and runs hospitals and clinics in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Montana.

Sawa said running the Seaside hospital will be somewhat different than running OBH, because it is a private institution. But both facilities confront similar challenges — especially the difficulties of recruiting specialized staff to a rural region, and coping with changing reimbursement models.

“It’s just different — I don’t know if it’s any more complex,” Sawa said, but he noted that as a large and “mature” healthcare system, Providence has plenty of experience running small, rural hospitals.

“I’m looking forward to having the support and resources,” Sawa said.

When he arrived at Ocean Beach Hospital in 2012, the hospital was on the brink of financial collapse. Due to recession and rapid changes to the healthcare industry, the hospital was deep in debt, operating at a loss, and dangerously close to not being able to make payroll. Hospital commissioners had recently fired the last permanent CEO, and appointed an interim CEO. With so much turmoil, public perceptions of the hospital had suffered.

Sawa and his team began making big changes almost immediately. In 2012 and 2013, the hospital significantly scaled down, through layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Since then, hospital leaders have made a few other staff reductions, mostly through attrition. In July 2015, the hospital eliminated in-house medical records and billing jobs, and turned billing over to a contractor.

Sawa also oversaw the successful transition from a paper-based medical record system to a new, federally mandated electronic medical records system. The process was both expensive and time-consuming, but helped the hospital modernize and provide more responsive care — now, healthcare providers across the system can access patients’ information through in-room computer terminals.

Starting in January 2014, Sawa led an effort to form a more formal partnership between PeaceHealth and OBH. Local hospital leaders hoped that affiliating would bring more financial stability, and make it possible to bring more specialists and services to the Long Beach Peninsula. But in October 2014, PeaceHealth leaders backed out, saying the organization was overextended as a result of other new partnership deals and the effort to implement their own electronic medical records system.

Between fall 2014 and spring 2015, PeaceHealth leaders radically restructured some of the regional administrative teams. A new chief operating officer joined the organization, and several key administrators left in short succession.

Sawa said he is leaving on good terms with PeaceHealth, and the recent turmoil had nothing to do with his decision to take a job with Providence.

“One of the hardest decisions I had to make was if I was ready to leave after 18 years of service with them. The decision was entirely my own,” Sawa said.

Like other small, rural hospitals, OBH continues to struggle, but Sawa will leave the institution in much better financial shape than he found it. In 2012, the hospital only had enough cash in reserve to operate for about two days. Now, it has enough reserves to operate for about 60 days. The hospital has paid down much of its debt, and gotten far more efficient at bringing money in: When Sawa arrived, accounts payable totaled about $1.6 million, but now are under $400,000. Sawa said he believes the hospital, which operated at a loss for several years, should finish 2015 in the black.

The hospital also brought in some women’s health services, and in early 2014, brought in a full-time general surgeon.

“That was probably one of the most significant things we’ve done,” Sawa said. He said the surgery has proven to be a reliable source of revenue for the hospital, and is extremely popular with patients, who appreciate being able to get simple procedures done locally. Now, the hospital is planning to expand services by hiring a surgical assistant. The physical therapy department was remodeled recently, and the hospital hopes to expand both physical therapy and cardiac rehabilitation services in future, too.

“I feel that Ocean Beach is in a really positive place right now. Change is never easy, but I think good things can come from this,” Sawa said. “I’m proud of the team here and proud of the community support over the past three years.”

Sawa said hospital commissioners have appointed Chief Operating Officer Larry Cohen, who was hired in July, to act as the interim CEO, while they consider their options. Sawa said he was confident of Cohen’s ability to lead the hospital.

“He’s a good fit with the mission vision and values of Ocean Beach. He bought a house in the community — he’s all in,” Sawa said.

Sawa said the commissioners have not decided yet whether to renew the management agreement with PeaceHealth, and have not made any decisions about how to recruit for Sawa’s position. He said the board was likely to discuss both issues at the December meeting.

Starting in January, Sawa will gradually turn over day-to-day operations to Cohen, and will begin working at Providence around Jan. 16.

He said he and his family plan to continue living on the peninsula for foreseeable future.

“I’m committed to a smooth transition,” Sawa said.