Lebanon —The governing board of Dartmouth-Hitchcock no longer includes a representative of the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees, according to college spokeswoman Diana Lawrence.

In March, the D-H website listed 20 trustees, including Dartmouth Trustee William Burgess. On Wednesday, the site listed only 19 trustees.

Burgess stepped down in July but no public announcement was issued, said Rick Adams, a health system spokesman.

Lawrence said the departure was a byproduct of efforts to address an estimated $30-million budget deficit at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. More than 300 faculty and staff lost their jobs at Dartmouth but 285 were offered positions at D-H. Clinical research faculty and staff and the entire psychiatry department moved from the college to the health system.

“A goal of the Geisel … restructuring was to redefine and clarify the roles and responsibilities of Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock,” Lawrence said in an email. “As part of that process, Dartmouth determined it was no longer necessary for a member of its board to serve as a liaison to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock board.”

That marked an interesting transition between the two organizations that are formally distinct, historically intertwined and sometimes, to casual observers, hard to delineate. 

In 2009, the health system formed a corporation called HIHS to serve as a holding company that would centralize control over Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic, Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital and other affiliates.

Later that year, HIHS changed its name to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health. That filing included a letter from Robert Donin, the college’s general counsel, confirming that the college trustees had assented to the use of the term “Dartmouth” in the holding company’s new name.

The 2009 filings included by-laws that established a D-HH board of trustees with 12 to 24 members including the presidents of the clinic and hospital, four more members nominated by each president, the dean of the medical school, an unspecified number of members representing the public and a “college board member” elected by the Dartmouth trustees from among their own number.

The bylaw setting aside a seat for a Dartmouth College trustee remains in place, Adams said: “There are no plans to revise the bylaws of D-HH following (Burgess’) departure, and we retain a position on the D-HH Board for a Dartmouth College member, who could be named at a later date.”

Duane Compton, the interim dean of Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, retains a seat on the board of the health system holding company.