Erlanger Hospital is located on 3rd Street in Chattanooga.
Jim BrexlerCounty Mayor Jim Coppinger has appointed a new person to Erlanger’s board of trustees, but the newcomer is out of the country and won’t be able to cast important votes relating to CEO Jim Brexler’s resignation.
Though the board has taken no official action on Brexler’s departure, many of its members signaled a lack of confidence in him last month when polled individually by the hospital’s general counsel, hospital trustee James A. Worthington said Thursday.
The hospital announced on Nov. 18 that Brexler would resign in the “next several weeks.” An unanswered question at the time was whether Brexler would be entitled to a severance package. No board vote has been taken on that matter.
“We have a responsibility to be fair to Mr. Brexler,” Worthington said. “But we have a bigger responsibility to be fair the citizens of Hamilton County.”
The 11-member board of trustees has held three meetings in the past month, one the day before the hospital announced Brexler was leaving, once on Nov. 17 and again on Nov. 29. Usually the board meets once a month.