Struggling Tennessee hospital company Community Health Systems will say goodbye to its general counsel and 19-year company veteran Rachel Seifert at the end of March, the company announced.
Seifert has served as CHS general counsel since 1998. She oversees the legal department and serves as secretary to the company's board of directors.
Seifert possesses 35 years of legal experience and was the only member of the CHS legal department when she joined them. Before coming to CHS, she served as vice president and assistant general counsel for Columbia/HCA. She also spent seven years in private practice, CHS said in a statement.
[Also: Community Health Systems continues dump of assets, unloads medical office buildings]
"Through nearly two decades of leadership, Rachel Seifert's range of responsibility has been broad and dynamic. She has provided sharp counsel and management for all of the company's legal matters, legal direction in support of all of our major transactions and corporate financing, oversight for SEC compliance, expertise on regulatory matters, and corporate governance support for our board of directors," Wayne T. Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of CHS said in a statement.
CHS Senior Vice President and Chief Litigation Counsel Ben Fordham will step in as interim general counsel when Seifert retires. Fordham joined CHS in 2007 with 29 years of private practice experience in litigation, mergers and acquisitions, general business and health law.
[Also: Community Health System to offload two more hospitals in effort to pay off debt, system announces]
CHS has seen a steady unloading of hospitals and other holdings in recent months as they strive to resolve debt. To date, they have sold off more than a dozen hospitals and a number of medical office buildings.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn