MILLINOCKET – Christine McLaughlin is the new chief financial officer at Millinocket Regional Hospital, officials said Monday.

The hospital’s board named McLaughlin to succeed Nancy Glidden and interim CFO Charles Glanville late last week, said David Nelson, the hospital’s community relations director. McLaughlin has worked at MRH since 1998.

“What’s striking about Mrs. McLaughlin is that she has worked in a variety of roles in the hospital, starting as an accountant, to where she is now highly qualified to be a chief financial officer,” Nelson said Monday.

Accountant, budget and reimbursement manager and controller are among McLaughlin’s previous positions. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in health care administration.

“She has worked for the organization for a number of years and will do a great job,” MRH Chief Executive Officer Marie Vienneau said.

The chief financial officer is responsible for the strategic financial direction of the hospital. This person maintains sustainability and profitability of the organization, Nelson said in a news release.

McLaughlin, who is married to Dale McLaughlin, the hospital’s director of plant operations, will be among those who are to preside over the hospital’s projects.

The hospital’s $1.15 million wellness and physical therapy center, the White Birch Medical Center, 899 Central St., will be open by April 1.

As part of the plan, the hospital’s physical therapy space in Medical Office Building 2 at 200 Somerset St. has been converted into office space.

Combining the new White Birch center with the Facility of Occupational and Rehabilitative Medicine, or FORM, on Connecticut Avenue in a space designed for all services would further improve efficiency while solving the lack of privacy and good work flow at the hospital, hospital officials have said.

Officials announced the plan in December 2005. They said the physical therapy space is the oldest department in the hospital and had not been renovated since the late 1970s.

MRH is a 25-bed critical care hospital that serves about 8,520 people in the Katahdin region, which includes East Millinocket, Medway, Millinocket and outlying areas. It employs about 250 people.