GREENVILLE – Philomena Marshall resigned Thursday as president and chief executive officer of the Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital.

“I needed to do what was best for me and what was best for the organization,” Marshall said Monday. She and her husband, Bob, plan to pursue other interests upon their return to the Midwest.

“I hope the community will continue to support the hospital; the hospital is very important to the community and the community is very important to the hospital,” Marshall said.

A search for a new president and CEO will begin immediately, Dave Richards, chairman of the hospital board, said Monday. In the interim, Geno Murray, a longtime hospital employee who has served as vice president, will serve as CEO.

Norman Ledwin, president and CEO for Eastern Maine Healthcare, of which Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home is a member, has assured board members that EMH will continue to provide support to the organization.

Marshall, who has been at the helm of the hospital and nursing home for a little more than four years, has been criticized in recent months about her leadership. A popular physician who left attributed his departure to administrative problems, and there long have been reports of unrest among staff members.

While Richards said he recognized that morale among staff members was low under the previous administration, he suggested it was not the sole reason for the unrest in-house. He believed the problems in the past centered on other issues as well, such as the health care system in general.

Despite the problems, Richards said there was no question that the staff has been supportive of the hospital and that Marshall has been an asset to the community.

“I think this community should understand that Philomena has done a tremendous amount of work for the hospital; she certainly has made us function more like a business,” Richards said. Change isn’t always an easy thing, he said, but with the changes Marshall initiated, the organization has been able to move forward both clinically and financially.

The projects Marshall is credited with while in Greenville include: helping the hospital get Critical Access Hospital status which reportedly saved the organization more than $1 million in lost revenue; getting the physician office suite within the hospital renovated and later creating Northwoods Healthcare; instituting Performance Improvement Initiative which focuses on continuous quality improvement; recruiting medical specialists to serve the hospital; and creating a master facility plan to upgrade the facility.

A $2 million capital campaign to carry out the facility plan, which was “sort of placed on hold this summer,” is still on the drawing board, according to Richards. Nearly half of the amount has been raised and pledged to date.

Marshall has agreed to serve the hospital and nursing home in a consulting capacity as needed.