Members resign from NRMC board

Published 12:11 am Saturday, October 25, 2014

NATCHEZ — The board that doesn’t have money, a building or even meetings is down another two members.

Two of the members of Natchez Regional Medical Center’s former board of trustees have resigned since the county-owned hospital was sold to Community Health Systems this month.

Trustees Lee Martin and John Serafin submitted their resignations from the board after the close of the sale, and the Adams County Board of Supervisors has accepted the resignations, Supervisors Vice President Mike Lazarus said.

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A third trustee, Lionel Steptor, resigned from the seven-member board in July after relocating from the area and was not replaced.

Lazarus said the supervisor won’t likely fill the vacant spaces since the hospital no longer exists as a public entity.

Serafin could not be reached for comment Friday. Martin declined to comment.

Even though the hospital has been sold, the board of trustees continues to exist as an independent entity because the bankruptcy plan the sale was ultimately approved as a part of has not been completed.

The Rev. LeRoy White, the board’s chairman, said the board still exists to be the remaining contact for the former NRMC.

But the resignations shouldn’t ultimately hamper the board’s business because the board has no business, he said.

“There is nothing we can take action on, it is all on what the (bankruptcy liquidation trustee) says,” White said. “They just call and say, ‘This is what we are doing.’ When they are paying folks out (of the bankruptcy estate) they just inform us.”

The bankruptcy’s liquidation trustee is certified public accountant Kenneth Lefoldt, who was appointed by the federal bankruptcy court to oversee the plan.

The terms of at last two board members — including White — will expire in February, he said, and will continue to do so every year until the bankruptcy is closed or the board no longer has any members.

“It can be down to one person and it won’t affect anything,” he said.

“Mr. Lefoldt is running the show.”

CHS has appointed its own board to oversee the credentialing of physicians and the quality of the medical staff. The new board for the now privately owned hospital does not have the administrative prerogatives the former board did.

CHS is also the parent company of Natchez Community Hospital, and officials with the company have appointed a dual administration that has said it will ultimately combine the two hospitals into one facility at the NRMC campus.