BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has promoted its financial consultant to post of interim CEO David Sanville’s appointment comes a year after a reported multimillion-dollar deficit and the subsequent departures of two top executives.
On Oct. 1, BMH named the former chief financial officer of Windsor’s Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center as its new interim CEO.
Sanville, who recently has helped the Brattleboro hospital deal with the deficit, stepped into his new role at the start of the 2027 fiscal year, the facility’s board of directors announced.
“David brings extensive experience in hospital finance and operations, as well as a deep understanding of the challenges facing community hospitals,” board Chair Chloe Learey said in a statement. “He already knows BMH, our people and our community, and we are grateful that he has agreed to take on this important leadership role as we search for a permanent CEO.”
Sanville has worked as a healthcare administrator for more than 30 years, not only at Mt. Ascutney, but also at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph and Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin.
He will replace acting co-CEOs Tony Blofson and Elizabeth McLarney, two doctors who have shared the post for the past year and who now will serve as senior advisers.
Sanville’s appointment comes after former President Christopher Dougherty exited without explanation in November 2025 and former Chief Financial Officer Laura Bruno departed amid similar silence in December.
Acting hospital leaders have blamed recent deficit spending on past administrative and accounting problems.
Two weeks ago, state regulators at the Green Mountain Care Board adopted fiscal year 2027 budgets for the state’s 13 other general acute-care hospitals, only to level-fund the Brattleboro facility until it clarifies its proposal, “given all the changes and some of the inconsistencies we’ve seen,” care board Chair Owen Foster said.
BMH, operating on a $130 million annual budget, has forecast a $7.1 million deficit for the 2027 fiscal year that began Oct. 1. That would follow a $33.6 million operating loss for the fiscal years 2017 through 2025 and an estimated $9.5 million shortfall for the 2026 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, it reported in a state filing.
Even with improvement measures, the hospital doesn’t anticipate breaking even on an overall annual budget until the 2028 fiscal year at the earliest.
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This News item by Kevin O'Connor originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.