Norma Jean Morgan, the chief executive officer of Effingham Health System, has retired effective immediately.

Hospital Authority chairman Rick Rafter, in a release, praised Morgan for her leadership in modernizing the health system and opening 52,000 square feet of new clinical space in 2012.

Morgan’s retirement came after hospital authority members met Tuesday night.

“We’re going through some reorganization and restructuring,” Rafter said. “It’s a matter of streamlining.”

Morgan returned to Effingham Hospital in December 2005 after serving as director of Medicaid Aging and Community Services in the state Department of Community Health from 2000-05.

Morgan also served as the nursing home administrator at Effingham Care Center and recently received the Eli Pick Leadership Award for nursing home quality, given by the American College of Healthcare Administrators.

The Effingham Care Center also won the Balridge Award from the American Health Care Association, the only nursing home in Georgia to receive that distinction.

“She’s done an awful lot for this community,” Rafter said. “It was her vision that we have the modernization to begin with. If it wasn’t for her, Effingham wouldn’t have Effingham Health System. It was her tenacity and her vision. She was relentless. I think the community owes her a big thank-you.”

Rafter said a search for a new CEO will start immediately.

See www.effinghamherald.net for more.