CHALMETTE, La. (AP) — St. Bernard Parish Hospital has received approval to hire a chief executive to run the facility, releasing it from third-party management.

Wayne Landry, chairman of the board that oversees the St. Bernard Hospital District, tells The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/W55A2) the hospital will do a nationwide search for a new CEO.

As part of the hospital's arrangement with Goldman Sachs, which provided much of the hospital's financing, the board signed an agreement that the facility would be run by a third-party manager.

When the hospital opened last fall, the CEO was provided by the nonprofit Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System.

But the Franciscan Missionaries pulled out of the agreement to manage the $70 million facility in Chalmette soon after the hospital opened.

Landry has been serving as interim CEO.

The Franciscans cited differences in management philosophies, and former and current hospital staff described contentious working relationships because of Landry's hands-on managerial style.

The hospital has since worked to get out of the third-party management clause in the Goldman Sachs agreement. As a result, Goldman Sachs has been reviewing the hospital's operations.

Landry told the Parish Council this past week that he got the verbal go-ahead by phone from Goldman Sachs "giving us our right to self-manage." He said that once he receives a formal letter stating the revised agreement, he will provide it to the council.

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Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com