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The chief executive officer of South Central Kansas Regional Medical Center is retiring from the hospital and eventually plans to relocate to another state.

Joe Jirinec notified the SCKRMC Board of Trustees of his plan to retire, and the board voted to accept the plans at a meeting this week.

The retirement becomes effective on Dec. 31. Jirinec has been the CEO of SCKRMC for the past five years, since Sept. 2000. He helped bring new medical services to the hospital and worked toward building a new hospital facility.

"Jirinec brought to the organization over 20 years of experience in the health care industry, and a total of 26 years (of) executive management experience," said Clayton Pappan, director of marketing.

Jirinec is responsible for advancing the medical center in numerous areas, Pappan said. One example is the hospital's Radiology Department which has had multiple equipment upgrades, including filmless imaging, teleradiology capabilities, a 16-slice CT scanner, and a 1.5 Tesla MRI scanner.

"These advances have allowed (the hospital) to stake a claim as the area's diagnostic imaging leader," Pappan said.

Jirinec plans to eventually relocate to Arkansas, his wife's home state, a press release stated. Jirinec could not be reached for comment Friday.

Jirinec helped cultivate a cooperative atmosphere between area physicians and the hospital, Pappan said. He helped bring several recent additions to the SCKRMC medical staff, including the revitalization of a local orthopedic program.

"The team attitude continues throughout the hospital, with every employee working to achieve one of Jirinec's main priorities which is excellent patient care," Pappan said.

SCKRMC's "patient priority" approach is allowing the medical center to experience some of the highest patient satisfaction ratings in recent history, he said.

Pappan noted in a press release that much of Jirinec's five years were devoted to the medical center's replacement facility project. He helped navigate SCKRMC through the highs and lows of a complicated financing process that has included potential funding by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

But HUD turned down the medical center's application for a federal loan to build a new facility, after a two-year process. A new $25 million hospital had been planned for two miles north of town.

Jirinec said in July that he remained committed to building a new hospital.

"We are going to move forward with private financing," he said. "There are some banks interested."