Dr. John Hirsch resigned this week as CEO of Forest Park Hospital after less than a year on the job.

The stint as CEO was Hirsch's second at the hospital, having also served in the role from December 2004 to August 2005.

Prior to his first run as CEO, Hirsch failed in an attempt with other physicians to purchase the hospital.

A St. Louis native, Hirsch previously served as chief of surgery at Missouri Baptist Medical Center and was founder of Suburban Surgical Associates in west St. Louis County.

Hirsch declined to comment Friday beyond confirming his resignation.

In a 2007 interview the surgeon said he believed in the need for urban community hospitals like Forest Park and lamented the opportunity to turn around the struggling hospital.

Success Healthcare LLC of Boca Raton, Fla., purchased Forest Park and St. Alexius hospitals of St. Louis last December from Envision Hospital Corp. of Arizona.

The company named Jim O'Keefe as interim CEO of Forest Park. O'Keefe previously worked as an executive at BH1 health care and Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tenn. Most recently O'Keefe served as interim CFO of Cape Cod Healthcare in Massachusetts, according to a Success Healthcare spokeswoman.

O'Keefe takes on a hospital that has experienced declining revenue and patient visits for several years.

The hospital, at 6150 Oakland Avenue, has 450 licensed beds.

Patient occupancy reached a low of 17 percent in 2007, down from 28 percent in 2005. By comparison, the average occupancy rate for hospitals in the St. Louis region is about 60 percent.

Forest Park has also been dogged by creditors including nurse staffing and utilities companies for failing to pay its bills.

Forest Park and AmerenUE reached a deal in February 2008 to keep the hospital's electricity running after repeated problems with payments.

In 2006, the hospital's owners announced the layoffs of about 100 hospital workers. The hospital also closed its obstetrics unit and reduced orthopedic services, which meant less revenue from private and public insurance payers.

The hospital posted a loss of $2.3 million in 2006 but turned it around to a $1.1 million profit in 2007, the latest figures available, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Forest Park and St. Alexius hospitals faced a tense situation this year when Gov. Jay Nixon's administration proposed regulations that would curb Medicaid payouts to hospitals in the state by $139 million a year.

Negotiations between the Missouri Hospital Association and the state Department of Social Services focused on the two St. Louis hospitals because of their particularly tenuous finances and the potential negative impact.

An agreement was reached where the payments will be phased out over three years instead of an abrupt halt, said Daniel Landon, senior vice president of government relations for the hospital association.

"The company that owns Forest Park and St. Alexius was saying that the consequences of the original proposal would be dire for them," Landon said.

"That issue I think largely has been resolved."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.