Dr. Kendall Griffith was appointed interim chief executive officer of the Juan F. Luis Medical Center at a tense meeting of the board of directors Saturday afternoon.

Griffith had been nominated to the post of chief operational officer at an emergency board meeting Wednesday, but with the sudden resignation of Jeff Nelson Friday, the board elevated the doctor to the hospital’s top position.

Board President Kye Walker shared terse words with the board members and hospital staff present, advising them to fall in line with the decision. She said that a meeting with representatives from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services Friday did not go well, and the hospital did not have time to debate the nomination.

If the hospital does not meet CMS standards by Feb. 13 or negotiate an extension, it could lose its accreditation with the organization. If that were to occur, the hospital would no longer receive payment for treating Medicaid and Medicare patients, a potentially crippling blow to the hospital’s shaky finances.

“The persons who were present in the exit interview know and understand that we don’t have the luxury of entertaining a transition period,” Walker said. “I just want to make clear, I’ve received some calls from people who have questioned the decision to appoint Dr. Griffith as interim CEO, and that’s not something the board is entertaining.

“The issues facing JFL are larger than the board, larger than everyone in this room, and it’s a community issue. It’s a territorial issue. We’re not entertaining any nonsense about who can work with whom and who can’t work with whom. Everyone has to get together and work as a team.

“CMS is holding the board accountable, the board is holding itself accountable, we’ve held Jeff Nelson accountable, and we’re not afraid to hold anyone else accountable,” she said.

Following the meeting, Walker declined to comment on the nature of Nelson’s resignation, and it remains unclear whether or not he was asked to leave. Walker took a moment to praise Nelson’s handling of the financial side of the hospital, but said the board wanted someone with a medical background at the helm.

In December, the board decided to strip Nelson of some of his authority and hire a COO to manage the clinical side of the hospital’s operation. This week, the board offered that job to Griffith, a St. Croix native and cardiovascular physician.

Asked whether Griffith would still be named COO after a permanent CEO is found, Walker said the board would cross that bridge when they came to it. However, she said that with Griffith as interim CEO, the board’s desire to have a physician in charge had been met, and they were no longer in any rush to fill the COO position.

Walker said Griffith would begin work next week and his first priority would be to complete the hospital’s “third plan of correction” and submit it to CMS by Jan. 31. The plan is essentially a road map detailing how the hospital intends to raise its level of care to CMS standards. The hospital has previously submitted two plans to CMS, both of which were deemed insufficient by the organization and rejected.

CMS sent a team of investigators to the island this week to review the hospital’s progress. The team met with board members on Friday to go over their findings.

“CMS has made it clear that in their opinion, the hospital has failed to achieve substantial compliance with the systems improvement agreement,” she said.

Walker said that so far CMS has declined to extend the deadline for compliance, but the hospital will continue to lobby for more time.