For the third time in less than a year, The Western Pennsylvania Hospital and its Forbes Regional affiliate have a new chief executive officer -- Dawn Gideon, a health-care consultant who once was a senior executive with the bankrupt Allegheny Education Health & Research Foundation.

Currently a managing director with Huron Consulting Group in New York, Ms. Gideon will start May 5, replacing Ed Klaman.

Mr. Klaman, who was vice president of The Western Pennsylvania Hospital from 2002 until April 2007, re-emerged from retirement last summer to run the Bloomfield-based Western Pennsylvania Hospital after Mark Palmer resigned. Mr. Palmer's exit came just a week after Jerry Fedele, chief executive of parent group West Penn Allegheny Health System, departed amid concerns about the pace of a long-promised consolidation of The Western Pennsylvania Hospital and Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side. Both are flagships of the West Penn Allegheny Health System.

When Mr. Klaman's appointment was announced in July, there was no mention of his serving as CEO on an "interim basis." But that's what the system said yesterday in explaining the latest move.

"When Mr. Klaman came out of retirement, it was his expectation he wouldn't serve longer than a year," said spokesman Tom Chakurda.

Ms. Gideon began her career with Forbes Health System, which eventually became part of AHERF, the health care system that filed for bankruptcy in 1998. Within AHERF, Ms. Gideon was senior vice president for Allegheny University Hospitals.

She became a consultant in 1999, according to a biography posted on Huron Consulting's Web site that cites her experience with turning around and restructuring hospitals. For example, Ms. Gideon served as chief operating officer and chief restructuring executive for Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Center in New York -- a $1.7 billion health-care organization.

Her bio also lists undergraduate and master of public health degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.

Ms. Gideon will report to new West Penn Allegheny Health System chief executive officer Dr. Christopher Olivia, who started last month. Dr. Olivia arrives at a time when the region's second-largest health care system (after the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center) is working through an integration of services and departments that it hopes will reduce costs and make it more efficient.

Dr. Olivia has told the board that he needs at least 60 days before making any recommendations about that process, according to a source familiar with the situation. Dr. Olivia also will have to look for a new systemwide chief financial officer. David Samuel vacated that position at the end of March, as he said he would do last year, and vice president of finance Dawn Javersack will be filling in on an "interim basis" until West Penn Allegheny settles on a permanent choice.