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Hospital shakes up administrative staff
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As the Effingham Health System begins changes in the services offered, there also now are changes among the organization’s top management.

Effingham Health System CEO Norma Jean Morgan confirmed Tammy Mims is out as chief operating officer and Mary Pizzino is no longer the chief information officer in a reorganization of the hospital’s hierarchy.

“I made a decision to realign the direction of our leadership,” Morgan said. “And in considering how I could be more cost-efficient and more cost-effective, I decided I could release two of the chief positions and redistribute their responsibilities and get the same product and the same work done.”

Mims, who had been a senior vice president at Savannah’s Memorial Hospital, joined Effingham Hospital in October 2008. Pizzino had been with Effingham Health System since March 2006.

Michael Murphy, who had been the EHS’ strategic business liaison and occupational medicine manager, has returned to real estate, Morgan said. Murphy was not an administrator.

Hospital Authority Chairman Rick Rafter had tendered his resignation from his post but has since rescinded his resignation, Morgan acknowledged.

“Change is difficult, and not everybody can embrace change,” Morgan said. “I am responsible for making sure the right people are in place, that they are doing their jobs, that we get the best and most benefit and I determined I could be more efficient and more cost-effective if I made some changes in the leadership, redirected people to others could do an equally good job in what we were trying to accomplish here.

“We are growing, we are changing, we are transforming,” Morgan continued, “and every now and then you just have to regroup. And that’s what I did.”

Effingham Health System has announced plans to add oncology and chemotherapy services later this year and will resume plans to become a 501(c)3 non-profit, a move that was shelved to undertake the modernization and expansion.

“The first thing is we are a critical access hospital,” Morgan said. “I had to a self-examination — ‘do I have the right people in place and do I have the right number of people in place?’ I made the decision I could reduce my staff and get the same amount of work accomplished. We just had to look at our organization and make some reductions.”