The Martha’s Vineyard Hospital does many things well. Sadly, community relations is not one of them.

By the stunned reactions that poured in after the sudden dismissal of president and chief executive officer Joe Woodin on Monday, few people — including, evidently, Mr. Woodin himself — knew his position was tenuous. Hired with excellent references from a similar hospital to a five-year contract just over a year ago, Mr. Woodin appeared to be firmly at the helm, actively engaging with employees and patients, hiring primary care doctors, participating in an Islandwide task force on substance abuse and most recently announcing the promised conversion of the Red House to a crisis stabilization unit.

To many, his visibility within the hospital and accessibility to those outside was a breath of fresh air.

The chairman and vice chairman of the hospital’s board of trustees have been clear that Mr. Woodin’s termination was not due to any malfeasance, but to a growing rift between him and the trustees.

“Joe had lost the confidence of the board,” trustee and board chairman Timothy Sweet told the Gazette early this week as the community clamored for details and more information. Unfortunately little was available, owing at least partly to the confidentiality concerns that accompany such events. “We were starting to go in different directions about what we thought was right for the future. In essence it was about how the hospital should govern itself,” Mr. Sweet said.

Hospital trustees bear broad legal responsibility for the institution’s operations, including its overall policy direction, finances and quality of care. And in most respects the hospital has done well since it was acquired by Partners HealthCare in 2006, balancing good clinical care with fiscal stability.

Regardless of the reasons, no organization can function over the long term if the chief executive is at odds with the board, and the trustees’ decisive vote Wednesday to confirm Mr. Woodin’s firing suggests the outcome was never in doubt.

But as the only critical care facility on an Island seven miles out in the ocean, the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital occupies a special status in this community. Just as the chief executive officer must have the confidence of the board, the board must have the confidence of employees, patients, Island residents and regular visitors that their needs and concerns are valued. The board’s bungling of Mr. Woodin’s ouster has threatened that essential bond of trust.

And seemingly overnight, the board has steered the Island’s only hospital from years of smooth sailing onto familiar rocky shoals.

In a statement published elsewhere on this page, Mr. Sweet describes a “widening difference between the vision of the board and the ideas and leadership style” of Mr. Woodin.

If board leaders are cautious for confidentiality reasons about airing the specifics of their differences, they at least owe it to the community to affirmatively describe what their own vision for the hospital looks like.

Better still, they could convene a community forum where the public can hear and react to that vision.