The rapidly growing UPMC private hospital chain has tapped Eamonn Fitzgerald, one of the most experienced executives in the sector, to lead and manage medical services at its Irish operations.
UPMC, which stands for University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre, is a $21bn healthcare provider that operates more than 40 hospitals around the world with more than 8,000 beds and 90,000 employees.
It is best known here as the operator of the Whitfield Clinic in Waterford.
The group entered the Irish private healthcare market in 2006 when it opened a cancer centre in Waterford. Growth here stalled in the aftermath of the financial crash a decade ago but has accelerated in the past two years.
US healthcare operator UPMC has bought Kilkenny s Aut Even Hospital, the oldest private hospital in Ireland, to further expand its services in the country.
The acquisition is part of a plan to add new medical services to the 71-bed facility, which is being renamed UPMC Aut Even Hospital, and to create the UPMC Global Technology Operations Centre in Kilkenny.
Terms of the deal, which is subject to approval by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, were not disclosed.
Aut Even is the latest addition to the UPMC franchise in Ireland following last year s purchase of Clane Hospital - now known as UPMC Kildare Hospital.