COLETTA

WARWICK — A successor for Kent Hospital president Mark E. Crevier, who is retiring, was named yesterday.

Sandra L. Coletta, of Johnston, was chosen to be the new president and chief executive officer out of a national pool of about 50. She is currently the chief operating officer of Miriam Hospital, in Providence, managing the day-to-day activities of its 247-bed medical and surgical facility.

Kent, a Care New England facility, is the largest community hospital in Rhode Island with the state’s second-busiest emergency department, spokeswoman May Kernan said.

“We are excited to have Sandy join our great team of dedicated health-care professionals and we feel confident she is the ideal candidate to help us carry out our vitally important mission in the years to come,” Care New England president and CEO John J. Hynes said in yesterday’s news release.

Coletta earned an MBA in management from Bryant College and a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Providence College.

Throughout her Miriam tenure, the news release said, Coletta “amassed a tremendous breadth of experience in virtually every area of strategic, clinical and operational leadership.” It also said she was “instrumental in leading efforts to improve patient satisfaction, to establish a new mission statement, to develop system-wide quality indicators and a quality reporting system.”

“Throughout this exhaustive search process which began in March … one candidate rose to the top and stood out,” Kent board of trustees chairman Thomas Celona said in the news release about Coletta.

Crevier announced his retirement, effective Oct. 15, in March. He had been the president for two years and faced a vote of no confidence by doctors last September while leading the hospital through rocky fiscal times. Crevier previously told The Journal that he planned to retire before that vote, and Hynes, who said Crevier will be missed, said the vote had no role in the president’s departure.

Coletta will begin Oct. 1, giving her a little more than two weeks to work with Crevier. Hospital officials said the time together and overlap would ensure a “seamless transition.”

Said Crevier, “I will do everything I can to get her off on the right start and help assure success at Kent.”

apina@projo.com