SUNNYVALE, Texas---Rockwall Hospitals, Inc. recently named Terry J. Fontenot as CEO of Sunnyvale, Texas,' first hospital, Texas Regional Medical Center at Sunnyvale, an $84 million general acute care hospital and scheduled to open in July 2009. Fontenot most recently served Rockwall Hospitals as corporate COO and has more than 30 years of senior-level executive experience working at medical/surgical hospitals, including 13 years as president and CEO of The Medical Center of Mesquite, which is now known as Dallas Regional Medical Center.

Fontenot is no stranger to the Sunnyvale hospital project or the Sunnyvale community, as he's coordinated critical aspects of the project with many of the physicians associated with the hospital project for several years. He, along with physicians associated with the hospital and Rockwall Hospitals, want to orchestrate a first-rate hospital and medical team for the eastern sector of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The state-of-the-art, fully digitized 70-bed Texas Regional Medical Center at Sunnyvale will be jointly owned by local physicians and Rockwall Hospitals, Inc. Operational management of the hospital will be the responsibility of Rockwall Hospitals, while Dallas-based Cottonwood Partners Capital Funding is handling the real estate development activities.

"We have been very fortunate to have had Terry J. Fontenot on the Rockwall Hospitals team for these past years and, especially now, to hand the chief executive officer's responsibility to him is most gratifying indeed," said Mark Kennedy, president and CEO of Rockwall Hospitals. "Terry has a profound knowledge of the marketplace and clearly brings a strong results orientation, which I have witnessed in his roles at Rockwall Hospitals. His determination to deliver excellence in all that he does, will no doubt benefit patients and physicians at this exciting new hospital for Sunnyvale and the surrounding region."

The hospital is expected to employ about 250 people, boasting a payroll in excess of $10 million. It will include 53 private inpatient suites, eight intensive care unit rooms, a women's center with labor, delivery, recovery suites. The hospital incorporates an efficient design, enabling it to expand to more than 250 beds eventually. Texas Regional Medical Center's services and capabilities will include a top-flight electronic medical record system by Siemens; six operating rooms, including cardiac surgery and an innovative no-lift patient transfer system; a full array of medical digital diagnostics, some of which includes magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); a 64-slice computerized tomography scanner (CT scanner); a dual cardiac catheterization laboratory with interventional radiology, mammography, ultrasound, picture archiving and communication systems, cardiology picture archiving and communication systems; computerized physician order entry, a R&F radiology room; and an emergency department with six treatment rooms, including two large, special treatment rooms.

Rockwall Hospitals also is working with area physicians to open a jointly owned hospital in Southlake, Texas.

"Along with the leadership of the great physicians in this hospital project and the resources and value-added expertise of Rockwall Hospitals, Inc., the Town of Sunnyvale and the surrounding area will have a community hospital it can be proud of," Fontenot said. "The hospital will not only serve the communities health care needs, but will become an important element of the overall development of Sunnyvale and will, no doubt, be key to attracting new businesses to this growing area of the Metroplex."

Fontenot is presently searching for the qualified professionals to fill the hospitals' chief financial officer and chief nursing officer positions.

A native of Bridge City, Texas, and a longtime Dallas resident, Fontenot's health care career has included senior executive positions as corporate COO, senior vice president of operations and president/CEO of medical/surgical hospitals ranging in size from 50 to 200 beds, all of which were affiliated with publicly traded companies. A member of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Fontenot received a master's degree in business management from Amber University and a bachelor's degree from Lamar University.