A search firm hired to find Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s next CEO has narrowed the pool of candidates down from about 100 to a dozen, the hospital’s board of trustees was told Wednesday.

LMH Board of Trustees member Rob Chestnut, who chairs a committee formed to hire the next CEO, said the committee is meeting Feb. 24 to review the qualifications of the remaining dozen applicants. Some candidates will be invited to visit the hospital for interviews in late March or early April, Chestnut said.

The committee, with the help of search firm Witt/Kieffer, is looking to fill the position currently held by CEO Gene Meyer, who announced his retirement in August. Meyer’s last day will be May 31.

“At this point, I think we’re in a good position to certainly have this person identified before Gene’s final day,” said Cindy Yulich, chair of the board of trustees. “We think we’re in a pretty good spot.”

Chestnut said the approximately 100 people who submitted applications were executives in 16 different states.

Witt/Kieffer spent weeks doing face-to-face interviews to vet the candidates.

It’s uncertain how many of the dozen will be invited for an in-person visit. As part of the Feb. 24 meeting, selection committee members will decide which stakeholders the candidates should meet with during their visits.

In other business:

• Joe Pedley, LHM Chief Financial Officer, said the hospital’s finance committee would ask the board in March to decide whether to refinance 2006 bonds. Pedley said the committee would likely recommend retiring the bonds, which would cut LMH’s cash on hand by about one-third but save the hospital approximately $2.5 million per year. The hospital’s reserves would not dip below $100 million, Pedley said.

• Meyer told the board he contacted Lawrence’s state legislative delegation to advocate for the “Bridge to a Healthy Kansas,” legislation authored by the Kansas Hospital Association. The legislation proposes Medicaid expansion.