After months of searching for a leader, the Natchez Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees named chief operating officer Lana Morgan as its interim chief executive officer.

Morgan says the hospital is her second home. She has worked for 19 years at the hospital, starting as a nursing assistant. Her late husband was a physician there, and her mother a nurse.

Board chairman Dan Bland says he’s confident that Morgan is what the hospital needs while it strengthens after coming out of its Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Morgan was offered the job of CEO — being named interim CEO was her own idea.

She says she is happy to be leadingi the hospital but would be willing to turn over the job if someone more qualified were to approach the board.