The search for a new chief executive officer to lead The Regional Medical Center at Memphis has been narrowed to two candidates.

The MED’s executive search committee on Wednesday evening interviewed Dr. Reginald Coopwood, the chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Nashville Hospital Authority, and George N. Miller Jr., who has served at the helm of hospitals in Texas and Ohio.

The hospital board would like to have a choice made by mid-December. The MED’s contract with its temporary management team, FTI Cambio, expires March 1. Board members are looking for someone to navigate the hospital through severe financial troubles, galvanize public commitment to the institution, shepherd a campaign for a new facility and establish stable leadership.

Each candidate spent about an hour with the committee. Miller, who is an owner of an employee placement firm, went first. He previously served as chief executive officer of Community Mercy Health Partners in Springfield, Ohio, for two years before resigning in 2008.

Miller said the system underwent a $20 million financial turnaround under his leadership by merging two hospitals into one, reducing staff and renegotiating contracts with vendors and professional providers. He then led the effort to gain approval for and raise money for a $250 million replacement hospital.

One of his first initiatives was to change the workplace culture, he said. Miller gauged that culture by dressing down, donning sunglasses and walking into the hospital to apply for a job after he had been chosen as CEO.

“I walked up to two young ladies with my baseball hat on and my sunglasses on and, standing right next to my picture, said I’d like to apply for a job here,” Miller said. “They didn’t look up at me. They didn’t smile. They just told me to go down yonder and take an elevator up.”

Before the day was over, a security guard wound up escorting him outside the hospital.

“I learned the culture of the organization, and we had to make a few changes,” he said.

Dr. Coopwood would have had a difficult time pulling the same stunt. A surgeon, he served as chief medical officer at Nashville General Hospital at Meharry for almost five years before becoming CEO of the hospital system. Four years and six months later, he still holds that post.

The Metropolitan Nashville Hospital Authority is a publicly owned, safety-net system as The MED is.

According to Coopwood’s resume, he has increased net patient revenues in Nashville by 45.4 percent, decreased its deficit by 76 percent ($10.8 million), helped raise over $6 million from donors and developed partnerships with other hospitals in that market. Specifically, he has led the development of Middle Tennessee’s Regional Health Information Organization with chief executive officers of Vanderbilt University, Healthcare Corporation of America and Ascension Healthcare systems.

“I can bring people together,” Coopwood said. “I can set a vision for an organization, set an expectation and hold people accountable as we move toward that goal.”

Nashville General Hospital operates in a competitive medical market, just as The MED does. Both hospitals suffered when TennCare expanded options for people on the state’s Medicaid program. Coopwood said he plans to prepare The MED for an even more competitive environment that may result from health care reform.

Both candidates were asked to give an example of strategic planning. Miller told how his hospital increased use of its maternity ward by offering women free DVDs of the first time they held their newborn babies. Coopwood said his hospital improved its patient/payer mix by dropping insurance co-pay requirements with an employer group.