Popular Interim CEO at Mammoth Hospital and the center of a major controversy, Ed Matthews, has resigned. In the face of tremendous support from the hospital staff, the Board of Directors declined to hire Matthews as permanent CEO. Officials stated only that Matthews does not have the necessary experience of actually running a hospital facility.

Hospital Board Chairman Don Sage revealed the sequence of events that led to Matthews' resignation. He said that former CEO Gary Myers had hired Matthews as the Chief Financial Officer, a kind of troubleshooter to get Mammoth Hospital out of a considerable hole in terms of hundreds of thousands of uncollected bills and a failed billing system. Sage said Matthews did make headway.

When Myers retired, Matthews was asked to serve as Interim CEO, another temporary job. The unexpected factor – near-unanimous employee enthusiasm for the hiring of Matthews as permanent CEO. Chairman Sage revealed that Matthews had started to resign three weeks ago when it was clear the Board would not hire him to head up the hospital. Board members said Matthews was not so qualified as the other candidates rounded up by a search firm. Employees disagreed, stating that Matthews had galvanized the staff into feeling like a real team with morale greatly improved for the first time in many years.

Sage said that he and board member Jack Copeland met with Matthews to work things out. They also received a stack of signed petitions in support of Matthews. "We talked to Mr. Matthews," said Sage, "and asked him to communicate with his support group that they quit the effort on his behalf. We told him it was disruptive." Matthews responded that he was a lame duck and wanted out.

On Saturday, the hospital board met again in closed session to re-consider Matthews, at the request of employees. Again, they concluded Matthews did not have the depth of qualifications needed. The Board asked their attorney to negotiate the termination of Matthews and pay him through the end of February.

At that point, Mammoth Hospital will have neither a Chief Financial Officer nor an Interim CEO. Asked if the Board had considered the combination of CFO and CEO, Sage said yes, but that the Board believed that would not be best for the hospital. "I think Mr. Matthews felt he could handle both jobs," said Sage.

Sage said the Board will disclose the controversy to the remaining three candidates for the CEO job when they come back for final interviews.